Autumnilia

Salute to the Colonel

2011-08-02T08:58:00.004+09:00

It's been years since I've had "KFC," and of course it's been even longer since any of us have had the original Colonel Sanders "finger lickin' good" recipe that was destroyed in the various corporate handoffs that absorbed his franchise.
Nevertheless, I think I'm not alone in getting a craving now and then for that particular blend of herbs and spices that went into the original batter. So today for no particular reason, I thought I would give it a try, based on my recollection. And not to brag, I think the result was good enough you may want to try it. My recipe borrows from a favorite tandoori chicken marinade. The original Kentucky Fried Chicken used a big pressure cooker full of lard. Not having a tandoor or a pressure cooker (or lard, for that matter), I improvised.
This works for a whole chicken or the equivalent of parts for about 3 pounds (1.3 kilograms) of chicken (The photo shows chicken "tenders" which are slices of breast. Skinless parts, especially white meat, are apt to get dry in the cooking process, so this is where the tandoori chicken technique comes in:
Blend one beaten egg and six tablespoons of plain (unflavored, unsweetened) yogurt in a bowl and add the chicken, rolling it around to cover with the mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
The coating:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. oregano
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp. sage
2 tsp basil
2 tsp marjoram
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp. clove
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp Ajinomoto or Accent

Combine the dry ingredients in a paper bag. (Maybe two paper bags, since bags are also not made like they were back when the Colonel was alive.)

I have a good set of stainless cookware that works nearly as well as a pressure cooker. Use what you have, but definitely cover the pan while cooking. Add enough oil (I use half canola and half olive oil) heat to smoke, then reduce the heat a little before adding the chicken. Crisco will make the chicken more crispy, but it's not as flavorful as lard and of course neither Crisco nor lard are as healthy as the oil.

Drop the chicken pieces in the bag of flour mixture, close the bag and shake it a few times to coat the chicken evenly. This is the messy part, but worth it. Gently place the coated chicken pieces in the hot oil. Be careful, because the cold chicken may spatter, even if it's coated with the batter mixture. Cover and cook 10 minutes, then turn the pieces and cook another 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350F (160C)

Remove the chicken to drain the oil, then move the pieces to a baking pan and bake for 20 minutes.

That's it.

Pizza 102

2011-07-16T09:56:00.009+09:00

Pizza is the great American (thanks Italy) Approximately 3 billion pizzas are sold in the U.S. each year. But who's counting the pizzas we make at home? From way back in kidhood, I remember pizza-making at home as a fun thing to do. So it is with that in mind I took just a little more effort to come up with one that uses a crust I think you'll like too.
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 4-ounce packet of dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup warm (not quite boiling) water
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. oregano
1 Tbsp. chopped basil
Pinch of salt

Combine the water, honey, olive oil and dry yeast in a bowl, stir to blend well and let rest for at least 5 minutes.

In a separate bowl, blend the flour, cheese, herbs and salt. Gradually add the dry mixture into the liquid, about a quarter-cup at a time, until it gradually makes a nice ball. Add a little flour as necessary, and with floured hands, knead the dough mixture for a few minutes to work out air bubbles and thoroughly combine the ingredients.

Add about 1 Tbsp. olive oil to a bowl to coat all sides and roll the dough ball around. Cover with wrap and allow to rise for at least an hour, until about doubled in size, in a warm place.

Preheat oven to 425F. Spread some corn meal over a pizza pan. Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and punch and knead it flat. Place into the pizza pan and turn up the edges a little to keep the toppings from spilling out.

Toppings are a matter of choice but the national favorite seems to be pepperoni (Americans consume more than 250 tons of it every year), followed closely by sausage, onions, mushrooms and peppers. And cheese of course, especially mozarela. I use extra garlic too. The sauce is also a matter of choice. The simplest is to spoon out your favorite pasta sauce. Plain tomato sauce also works well, from which you can add fresh herbs. Spread the sauce over the flattened dough, sprinkle on the other toppings, adding the cheese (I used both mozarela and parmesan) last. Place on the lowest rack of your oven Bake about 12-18 minutes. Baking time will vary, depending on ovens (electric takes longer) and the amount of topping. The best guide to done-ness is when the edges of the crust are brown and the cheese topping is starting to bubble and turn brown.

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Barbecue 101

2011-06-24T08:54:00.006+09:00

Ah summer! More sunlight, which means more time to be outdoors, which includes grilling. But, for folks like me in a second floor apartment with a balcony and a kitchen with all-electric appliances, barbecue can be daunting. I love watching Food Network shows, because they usually include tips that can be adapted to even my no-backyard lifestyle.
So even in winter or in rainy weather, it is easy to enjoy that great outdoor taste indoors. There are three basic necessities: The rub, the smoke, and the sauce.
Aye, There's The Rub
Whether you want pork, beef or chicken (or seafood or even tofu, although they are a little more delicate), you need the rub, which is a blend of the flavors you want to permeate the course of choice. I recommend making a batch of rub to keep in a tightly sealed glass jar (Mason jars, Ball jars, and so on... the kind used for canning). You will want to experiment for the combination that suits you best but I have hit upon this one as a good starter:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup each of cumin, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, kosher salt, cayenne pepper, white pepper, and ground black pepper.
Put all this in the jar, close the lid and shake until everything is blended together.
From this basic rub, it is easy to make variations. Spoon out enough of the basic rub for the project at hand. For example, a typical rack of ribs will need about 1/3 of a cup of the rub base. For a little India/Indonesia/Thai/Vietnamese/Burmese/Cambodian edge, add a tablespoon of curry powder (garam masala). For a hint of Chinese, a teaspoon of 5-spice powder. For Caribbean, grate a lime and sprinkle the zest into the base. Other variations include mustard powder, coconut powder, fine-ground almond or peanut.
For preparation, pat the meat or chicken dry with paper towels, then poke holes in it with a sharp knife. Sprinkle the rub over the meat and give it a good massage all over, flip it over and repeat the process. (For fish, just sprinkle the rub over the top.) Wrap the meat tightly in Saran Wrap and let it marinate at least overnight in the fridge.
To get that "falls off the bone" treatment, remove the ribs from the plastic wrap, sprinkle a little more of the rub over the meat, wrap loosely but securely (so the juices don't mess up the bottom of your oven) and place on a flat cooking sheet in an oven preheated to 225F for about two hours.
The Smoke
To make the smoke, you need real wood chips, preferably hickory, oak, or a fruit wood, but honestly, about any kind of tree but pine will do. These chips are available in most supermarkets. Use about two handfuls of the chips on a flat baking pan covered with aluminum foil. Soak the chips in cheap beer overnight. When ready to cook, place the pan of chips on the lowest shelf of your oven (even an electric oven will do), turn on the ventilating fan, set the oven temperature to 400F. Open the foil on the ribs enough to expose the meat, but let the foil help hold in the juice. Bake about 30 minutes.
The Sauce
I usually add my sauce by painting it on in the last 10 minutes of the baking cycle. It is also ok to put it on just before serving.
The sauce ingredients are also a matter of preference but here is a combination that generally works just fine:
2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup dry red wine or water
1/4 cup wine vinegar or rice vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper (I prefer ground rainbow peppercorns)

And that's it.
For more barbecue hints from the Food Network folks:

Beyond Poster Rhetoric

2011-02-21T12:50:00.001+09:00

When I see someone at a major intersection holding a sign that is not a plea for a handout, I am interested. That happened a while ago when I found an earnest young man and woman at a busy nearby traffic signal. He was holding a sign that read “End Israeli Apartheid” and hers said “AIPAC Funded Obama Veto.”
The first was fairly easy to figure out, although I had not seen the term apartheid, Afrikaans in origin, applied to Israel. The second was somewhat more cryptic, until I figured out that AIPIC means American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the U.S. pro-Israel lobbying organization. To be fair, the poster wasn’t big enough to explain the detail. On Friday, Feb. 18, as The Washington Post described it, “The Obama administration cast its first-ever veto in the United Nations Security Council, blocking a a Palestinian-backed draft resolution that denounced Israel's settlement policy as an illegal obstacle to peace efforts in the Middle East.”
Now you might think that not everyone who holds up signs at traffic on a cold Sunday evening really understands what the signs mean. But these folks were refreshingly well informed. “Apartheid in this sense is the effect of continuing to economically isolate and discriminate against the Palestinians who are still being displaced by Israeli settlements even after years and years of promises,” the young man told me. And the poster about the UN Security Council resolution was really more a matter of informing those who might either not know or think otherwise, that AIPAC’s lobbying effort was responsible for a puzzling shift in U.S. Middle East policy. I don’t know for sure that AIPAC actually bought what amounts to a historic isolation of the United States in the 14-member Security Council (all the other members supported the resolution.). Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the veto “should not be misunderstood to mean we support settlement activity,” and explained that although Washington strongly opposes Israel’s settlement policy, which encroaches further into what is regarded by most as Palestinian territory, the U.S. believes that the UN resolution could harden positions and encourage Palestinians and Israelis to resist negotiated solutions. So I think the young lady was being too generous with her sign. I would encourage her to make a new poster declaring, “U.S. Middle East Policy is Bullshit.”
But that’s stating the obvious. The Israeli version of apartheid opposed in the young man’s sign has been the focus of violence and bloodshed from ancient times. I suppose it would be just as easy to blame the Obama administration or the Oslo accords of 1993 and 1995, or any previous U.S. president’s diplomatic policies or maybe the British for partitioning the area, or why not the Mesopotamians?
Modern Israel has grown out of United Nations-sponsored division of the territory into Israeli and Palestinian areas based upon a 1947 General Assembly resolution. The Israelis have turned their assigned chunk of land into a relative paradise, while much of the Palestinian portion is pretty much the same gravel-intensive pesthole it has been for centuries. When the Israelis want to plant olives and asparagus, the Palestinians want to throw rocks and blow up buses. Is it a good thing for Israel to put up what amounts to a low-grade version of the Berlin Wall to separate the two as it seeks to expand its olive groves and asparagus farms? Probably not. Do Palestinians have a right to strap C4 and roofing nails to themselves and blow up buses in Jerusalem? I don’t think so.
My point, and I’m not sure if this matches what the two sign-holders were getting at, is that the United Nations is an international forum for dealing with conflicts. It’s not a very effective forum, to be sure, but it has done some good in brokering agreements that have brought, if not peace, at least the absence of war in many parts of the world. The exercise of U.S. veto power in this case is not helpful at all.
But then U.S. policy is often not very helpful. This is ironic, perhaps, since the United States was itself established by violent, bloody revolution. Just to refresh everyone’s memory, our country was formed in the late 18th century out of 13 British colonies in which the residents basically got tired of being taxed by the profligate empire 3,500 miles (5,600 kilometers) away. That led to war on our own soil, but it did bring the right to self-determination that we cherish as a fundamental freedom in our country.
I would not want anyone to think I’m advocating bloody conflict anywhere. I do think that if the Palestinians covet self-determination, they might start by actually doing something positive, something good, with the territory they have. What is the Palestinian equivalent of an Israeli Kibbutz? Even with Israeli economic and technical support, the economy of the West Bank and other Palestinian areas is still in much worse shape than that on the other side of the fence. If it is true that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, the best way to get greener grass is to do whatever the guy on the other side of the fence did to make it happen, not throw rocks at him.
I don’t think the U.S. should try to solve all the problems of the world. I wish I could believe our interests are purely altruistic. It would be nice if our diplomatic efforts, such as they are, could encourage nonviolent self-determination. That does not necessarily mean other countries will necessarily like us more, but it might lead them to dislike us less. Despite all the conferences and assurances given by President Obama and his predecessors back to Harry Truman and in ways even further back, the Middle East (and northeastern Africa) is still unstable. Will Egypt be able to stabilize after the military relinquishes interim control? Will Libyans finally decide they have had enough of their nutball leader? What about the growing dissatisfaction and outright resistance building in Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen? Will something similar bring change Iraq, Kuwait, Mauritania, Oman, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Sudan? Maybe something good will come of the unrest; then again maybe not. If there is revolution in any of those countries, the eventual outcome may not be “pro-American” or even necessarily “pro-Democratic.”
When we talk about peace, what we’re really talking about is an economically stable environment that is not oppressive. Remember America’s own revolution was about outrageous taxation. Too often, and despite what were probably good intentions, the United States (just as colonial powers before it) has sought to achieve stability by supporting what amounted to dictatorships. We obviously have good reason to be wary of what tin-pot leader emerges to succeed toppled tin-pot leaders. We need to figure out a way to encourage self-determination in a way that also promotes economic growth in an environment of social stability. I think one way to help make that happen would be to ensure that our foreign policy is consistent. We sure dropped the ball with the UN veto.

Garfield's Favorite! (Phibe's too)

2010-09-13T12:53:00.006+09:00

Garfield, who is also from Indiana (or at least Jim Davis, his creator, is a Hoosier, via Fairmount), is one of the world's authorities on lasagna. That's a pretty good skill for a cat. So, today, after having been quiet for a long time, I wanted to post what I think is my best lasagna so far... Not that I will stop experimenting).
The recipe is really not so difficult, but preparation from scratch, which is what I did this time, does take time. You can use shortcuts, of course, which I will note as we go along. Ready?
From scratch, you'll need a pound of ground beef and a half-pound of pork sausage. I used Hormell spicy, but whatever you like... One medium onion and a half-bulb of garlic. Chop the onion and garlic fine. Saute the onion and garlic until translucent, then drain, while browning the ground meat. Drain the meat, then add the onion and garlic.
Add two cans of diced tomatoes and one small can of tomato paste, a can of black olives (chopped) and enough oregano, fennel, basil, taragon and other herbs to suit your sense of "Italian flavor." Let this sauce simmer for about a half-hour.
You'll also need a 16-ounce container of ricotta, a handfull of fresh parsley or parsley and cilantro, also finely chopped, and one large egg. Blend these together separately in a bowl.
Next is to grate at least 6 ounces of parmesan, 6 ounces of mozarella, and 6 ounces of gorgonzola or blue or whatever "sharp" cheese you favor. blend them together in a bowl.
While this is sorting itself out, bring to a boil a big pot of water with a splash of olive oil (to keep the pasta from sticking and the water from boiling over). Add six lasagna pasta chunks and boil for 8 minutes, poking gently to keep them from sticking. (This is for a 9 by 9 inch baking dish. You may need more for a bigger dish.)
The next trick is the layering of ingredients.
Begin with a layer of the meat-tomato sauce across the bottom of the baking dish. Spread it evenly, then top with the lasagna noodles.
Add the ricotta-parsley-cilantro-egg mixture, spread evenly, then top with another layer of lasagna noodles.
Add a layer of the three-cheese mixture, then another layer of the meat-tomato sauce, then another layer of lasagna noodles.
Finish with another layer of the meat-tomato sauce, then top with the rest of the cheese, adding more if necessary. Cover this with aluminum foil, sprayed with olive oil so the cheese won't directly touch the foil (so it won't stick)
Bake for 25 minutes at 375F (160C). Have a glass of wine, check your e-mails, then remove the foil, and bake for another 25 minutes, until the cheese is a nice golden brown.
Note:
I kinda over-filled my baking dish, so to prevent a mess on the bottom of your oven, place a cookie sheet or a sheet of foil beneath the lasagna dish for safety.
I served mine with a fistfull of garden-fresh green beans, some sliced green and red peppers, and toasted sesame seed, accented with artichoke, tomato, olives and fresh basil leaves. Of course, this is an Italian meal, so it wants more wine!
Enjoy

Naan desu ka?

2010-07-05T10:37:00.006+09:00

For Independence Day, I wanted to depart a little from the typical fried chicken-potato salad fare and still stay within the same ballpark in terms of ingredients. The outcome was tandoori murghi (without the tandoor), a cooling raita salad, a spinach-potato curry, a chickpea (garbanzo bean) curry, mango-date chutney, and garlic naan, with not-too-sweet lassi to wash it down.
This menu has several advantages. First, it’s not hard to make if you have the right spices. Second, it is loaded with a variety of healthy veggies, as well as healthy protein. And maybe first again, it tastes great, and is well worth the advance prep (Most of the menu benefits from overnight marination.). The leftover chicken (if there is any) can be stored in the fridge, and the raita is like a salad that goes well with other summer fare such as hamburgers and hot dogs.
Familiar elements in this little menu are yogurt, lemon juice, cilantro, and cumin, onion, cardamom, garlic and ginger and other spices. From what I’ve learned from Indian friends, the blend of spices is a regional and often personal choice, and most cooks blend their own masala from different proportions of generally the same spices. The presence of tomatoes is also an option.
Tandoori chicken is basically barbecued chicken. A tandoor is a deep clay-brick-lined oven used in India to make naan (a flat bread) and skewered meats such as chunks of lamb or lamb sausage formed around long metal skewers and hung over the coals. The use of the tandoor for things other than bread seems to be a fairly recent (1947, according to some usually reliable sources) culinary device, so to speak. And because of the way it’s made, even without the traditional tandoor oven, it is tasty and juicy. If you’ve had dry tandoori chicken before, don’t be put off about trying this at home. Some Indian restaurants make up a big batch of tandoori chicken in advance and reheat it, which naturally makes it dry. What you make at home is almost certain to be better!
I won’t give the recipes here, but in the photos here, you can see that I used chunks of chicken breast. It’s best to use a cut-up whole chicken, skinned but with the bone in and stripped of fat. The important thing is to poke each piece of chicken with a fork in several places, deep, and to make slits around the chicken pieces. These operations help the marinade penetrate into the meat for that spicy, juicy quality it should have. The base for the marinade involves a masala, or blend of spices, dominated by cayenne pepper. For a typical three-pound chicken, I’d say the spice blend might be this:
3 Tbsp. cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp. paprika
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp cardamom
½ tsp ground clove
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp salt
To this spice blend, add the juice of two lemons, several cloves of minced garlic, 1 Tbsp. crushed fresh ginger, and ½ cup of plain (unsweetened) yogurt.
Mix this marinade until it is a nice even hot-pink color, then add the chicken pieces, rubbing the marinade into each piece. Place the pieces in a big zip-lock freezer bag, pour in the marinade, and seal the bag, letting out as much of the air as possible. Place the sealed bag in a bowl (just in case it isn’t completely sealed), and refrigerate it at least overnight.
The raita is simply a combination of diced cucumber, diced red (actually purple) onion, diced tomato, and chopped cilantro, mixed with a dressing of yogurt, cumin, a little lemon juice and a dash of salt. Blend all this together in a bowl, cover the bowl tightly and put it in the fridge with the chicken. If you can’t do all this a day ahead, at least marinate for an hour before serving. Raita is a necessary companion to a curry meal because the yogurt helps calm the “hotness” of curries.
My curries of choice were a spinach-potato thing called aloo palak, and a chickpea curry.
The mango chutney involves a ripe mango (The big Mexican variety are great for this), a half-dozen pitted dates, 2 Tbsp. lemon juice, 2 Tbsp. cider vinegar, ¼ cup brown sugar, half a red onion (the other half of the onion used to make the raita), ½ tsp. brown mustard, 1 tsp. cardamom, ½ tsp. cinnamon, and ½ tsp. ground clove. Cut the mango into thumb-sized pieces, dice the dates and onion, and blend everything together in a bowl, cover and put in the fridge beside the chicken and the raita.
The other seemingly fancy (but quite easy) element of the menu is naan. Naan is best baked against the side of a real tandoor, but you can fake it like I did, even in an ordinary electric oven. The trick is to find a good flat stone. I’m right beside the river, so that was easy, and I put it back when I finished (recycling stones is easy). The rock should be at least as big as a piece of pita bread, which is about the size your finished naan will be).
Preheat the oven to just short of broiling. This is about 500F in most ovens. Place the stone on the bottom rack of the oven at least 20 minutes before you’re ready to actually start baking.
The ingredients are 2 cups all-purpose flour, a packet of dry yeast, 1 Tbsp. sugar, 1 Tbsp. olive oil, a pinch of salt, ½ tsp. baking powder, ½ cup of warm water, and 3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped.
In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients, blend well, add the oil and yogurt and mix all. Separately, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let it sit for 2 minutes before blending into the other ingredients. You may need to add a bit of flour during kneading to get the right consistency, just a little bit sticky, but not too dry. Cover the bowl and let it sit for about four hours. Knead the dough again for a few minutes, then divide it into six parts (You can always freeze what you don’t use.)
Shape the dough segments into balls, sprinkled with flour, and knead in the chopped garlic. (for variety, you could also get fancy and use cilantro, mustard seeds, raisins, almonds or pistachios.)
With a rolling pin, shape the balls of dough into somewhat round pieces (a little long on one end makes it look more authentic) about a half-inch thick. Carefully stretch the dough over the stone and let it bake about three minutes. A baked naan will puff up in places. Remove from the oven and baste with melted butter or olive oil. The baked pieces can be kept warm in foil on the top of the stove until you’re done.
Naan is a great tool for scooping up the curry.
Lassi is a refreshing yogurt-based drink that comes out much like buttermilk. I made sweet lassi with ½ cup of plain yogurt and a cup of cold water, a sprinkle of cumin and a squirt of honey. Serve with ice! As with the other recipes, these amounts are approximate. I have never been able to drink just one.

Suki na Mono

2010-07-02T11:33:00.003+09:00

I can't say that I particularly miss Yoshinoya, the Japanese fast-food chain most familiar for its gyudon (stewed beef and onion, mostly, atop a bowl of white rice). But there is something nostalgic about being far from something so familiar. (When I was in Tokyo, I sometimes got similar cravings for Spam.)
Anyway, my hunger was for that familiar taste, with something more substantial in the way of flavors. I can't give a recipe, exactly, because the quantities are more a matter of taste than chemistry. But it begins with thin-sliced beef. It's not so easy to ask a supermarket butcher to basically ruin his lunchmeat-slicing machine by making 1/16-inch slices of sirloin, so I made do with prepackaged carne insalata beef, then sliced it thin myself at home. Another way around it is to buy sirloin, chill it to near-freezing, and slice it thin with a very sharp knife. The rest of the recipe is sweet onion (tama negi), scallions (naga negi), ginger (shoga), thin-sliced bell peppers, garlic, sesame oil, toasted sesame seed, soy sauce, brown sugar, red wine, sake, and corn starch.
Slice half of a medium sized onion thin, slice the scallions diagonally, thin-slice the peppers and ginger, chop the garlic, and marinate the beef, onions, garlic and ginger in a combination of the sesame oil, soy sauce, brown sugar, red wine, sake and corn starch. Drain the liquid and stir-fry the beef-onion-ginger combination on high heat to brown. Remove it back to the liquid. Wipe the wok or fry pan and stir-fry the peppers, then add the cooked meat-onion combination with the remaining juice. stir to thicken the sauce, then remove to serve over a bowl of rice. I use a combination of white and brown Japonica (short grain), but whatever rice you use, steam it with a quarter-cup of sake for outstanding flavor.
Garnish the bowl with some fresh cilantro and wash down with a beverage of your choice. This probably won't put Yoshinoya out of business, but it sure satisfies that craving for gyudon!
Gyudon has its roots in sukiyaki, a relatively familiar treat of beef (usually) and vegetables cooked at the table. It's hard not to think of Kyu Sakamoto's 1963 hit known outside Japan as "Sukiyaki," although the song had nothing to do with food. In fact, the song, which was the only Japanese-language song to top the Billboard Hot 100 in that year, is actually titled Ue o Muite Aruko (I'll Look Up When I Walk), which I guess has a hint of nostalgia in it as well. The sense of the song is that the guy singing holds his head up when he walks so his tears won't fall so fast. As happy as it may seem to those familiar with the original, and seeing Sakamoto smile while singing it, it's kind of a bittersweet feel-good song.
In the 1960s, Japan was finally emerging from its post-World War II trauma to the point many families were able to at least aspire to, if not yet own, the "Three Cs," (car, cooler -- air conditioner -- and color TV). Beef, for years an unaffordable luxury, was again within reach of most households, and sukiyaki was something a typical Japanese family could treat itself with.
So, for the poor salary-droid oyaji who drink themselves past the last train, the familiar orange Yoshinoya sign, usually near train stations (Yoshinoya took over most of the Dunkin Donuts chain's locations when that franchise went belly-up in the 1990s), gyudon has a nostalgic aspect well beyond its ability to take the edge off a night of too much sake.

Oil Mess Update: Howard's Tap Dance

2010-06-18T09:57:00.001+09:00

In case you missed it, Tony Hayward, the embattled chief executive officer of BP plc, put in a hard seven hours on Capital Hill today, evading questions he had previously received from the congressional committee seeking to sort out responsibility for the mess that persists since the April 20 Gulf of Mexico oil-rig explosion. Hayward was widely expected to choose his words very carefully, to avoid being seen to accept any legal or moral responsibility for the deaths of 11 men who were on that oil platform or the ugly brown oil sludge that continues to coat the Gulf coast. And sure enough, he said next to nothing apart from acknowledging that there was indeed an oil rig mishap and that BP accepts its that it must at least help pay for the cleanup.
BP, as the world’s fourth-largest corporation, takes in huge revenues from its energy and other mineral exploitation worldwide. Even so, $20 billion (assuming the agreed-upon escrow fund is fully spent) is not chump change. So naturally, Howard would not want to be held accountable for any more losses. BP stock has already taken a hit, and this is from the impact of a leak at just one of the deep-water rigs BP owns or holds rights to globally. So, one would think, 60 days into this one particular mess, Howard would have spent at least the previous 59 days of “wanting his life back” in trying to determine what went wrong and whether it might go wrong again, possibly even worse, somewhere else. From his responses in testimony however, that seems not to be the case. He didn’t know this. He wasn’t responsible for that….. Bullshit Tony. You are the CEO. The buck stops with you. You may not have blown up the oil rig, and you probably didn’t know that the pipe on the seabed was going to be so hard to cap off. But you are a trained oil geologist and the executive in charge of all the people at BP who DO have the answers and the responsibility. So it is your bloody job to find out what went wrong and put a cap on that.
Compare, if you will, Howard’s verbal tap dance under oath today with what another CEO said in a globally televised address just a few days before:
“The one approach I will not accept is inaction. The one answer I will not settle for is the idea that this challenge is somehow too big and too difficult to meet. You know, the same thing was said about our ability to produce enough planes and tanks in World War II.” That was from Barack Obama, CEO of the United States, in his first address from the Oval Office since he became president. Obama was just back from another trip to the Gulf states hardest hit by the creeping oil sludge from Howard’s well. Granted, it was an address intended to show the president is in charge and maybe to help bolster sagging popular support. But it was devoid of any attempt to shirk responsibility or show ignorance. Howard and his handlers need to do some serious post-game reviewing of the videos on that one.
At the same time, I give Howard credit for staying focused, despite a surprise blow job from Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas, who twice apologized to Howard for what Barton called the “slush fund” BP agreed to post to help pay for the Gulf cleanup and recovery. Barton later retracted his remarks, under strong pressure from his congressional colleagues. But Barton, whose campaign fund includes at least $27,350 in donations from BP (according to Time magazine), really needs to have someone brand STFU in reverse on his forehead so each time he looks in the mirror, he will be reminded to watch his mouth. He certainly didn’t help his Republican colleagues who seemed earnest about a united effort to get to the bottom of the oil spill, so to speak. Perhaps that’s what we have come to expect from politicians in bed with Big Oil, but the spotlight on the Gulf of Mexico now should also help enlighten us all. Meanwhile, we should also hope that BP’s Howard will stand by one statement he made in testimony, that he is “focused on the recovery.” That’s what’s needed most.

Time Out: Yes, I'm Mad as Hell!

2010-06-11T05:13:00.002+09:00

Tony Hayward, as the chief executive officer of BP plc, heads the world’s fourth-largest corporation (and the third-largest energy company after Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil). That puts him squarely in the realm of world leaders, not shoe clerks. Indeed, Hayward has negotiated mineral rights with presidents and potentates all over the world. Not bad for a man who started out at BP as an oil rig geologist. He’s no dummy, despite his stupid-ass comments and stonewalling on the April 20 Gulf of Mexico oil-rig disaster. And he is not likely to be any less disingenuous when he and other energy executives appear in Washington, D.C., June 17 to testify about the mess.
I have interviewed corporate executives in my years as a journalist. I do not believe these people routinely lie. And they are not stupid. Well, when a fifth-grader says the dog ate his homework, I guess that counts as a lie. When a crook is confronted with the evidence of his theft, his natural response is to plead ignorance. So I guess that’s also a lie. Ok, yeah, corporate executives do lie, sometimes famously, but lies are not a natural response executives of publicly held corporations ought to make in unpleasant or uncomfortable situations. One of the smartest answers an executive could give when asked if his company has done something bad should be to say “I don’t know.” Yes, it is a lame-dick answer, but which is worse, being stupid, or being a liar? Hayward has so far chosen against taking the high ground.
Speaking of the ecological and economic disaster the encroaching oil leak is creating, Hayward famously told USA Today, "We're sorry for the massive disruption it's caused to their lives." Now Hayward is a well-educated native speaker of the English language, and even allowing for the British propensity to understatement, referring to this as “massive disruption” is like referring to World War II as a military skirmish. Even worse, however, in the same article, Hayward is quoted as saying, "There's no one who wants this thing over more than I do, I'd like my life back.” I am willing to bet my next Social Security check that the 11 men who died as a result of the rig explosion would like to have their lives back too. I’d bet those who survived but are still traumatized by the blast would like to have their lives back. I’d bet the families and friends of all those folks, as well as the families of Gulf and coastal fishermen and others who depend upon an oil-free environment for their livelihoods would like to get their lives back as well.
As I write this screed, BP says it aims to start burning some of the oil it is able to retrieve from the surface of the Gulf. Oh fine; we already killed off the biosphere of the Gulf region with tar balls and waterborne toxins still surging up from the broken undersea well pipe. Now let’s go ahead and kill off what’s left with airborne toxins from uncontrolled burning. Obviously, whoever comes up with these brilliant notions, while days go by without pursuing even the most fundamental common-sense responses, must be on some kind of methamphetamine IV. I smell “lawyers” in the brilliance of BP’s reactions so far.
Before this gets any more ridiculous, and without waiting for Washington to figure out which asses to kick instead of which to kiss, and in addition to the Henry VI approach of "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers," I have some suggestions on things we can do to end this crap. Keep in mind that BP is not “just” an energy company. And even though BP shares have sunk in value, the real value of BP’s underlying assets – that is the value of BP properties if they were sold today on eBay, for example – is still an awesome amount of money by any standard. So:
1. One of the first responses is already under way on stock markets, where BP shares have lost at least 60 percent of their value since the April 20 explosion. As investors dump their shares, the prospects of long-term credit damage to BP in having to pay for the cleanup and related lawsuits has even spooked the institutions that hedge their investments with credit-default swaps. BP has a first-quarter dividend payout due in a week or so. Chances are good that more than 15 million British pensioners are going to suffer the impact on their payouts as well, as BP holdings are a large part of pension-fund portfolios in the corporation’s home country. Sorry, folks.
2. Accountability has obviously not been a useful tool against BP thus far. Even before the oil-rig blowout, BP was the worst offender of all corporations in the United States in terms of its safety record, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA had already accused BP of “willful violation” of its rules. Not counting the 11 deaths in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, BP had more work-related fatalities than any other company in the United States over the past decade, OSHA records show. Survivors of the Gulf of Mexico explosion have gone on record about the shoddy safety practices at that specific drilling site. But BP has oil and energy-exploration operations under way all over the world. BP public relations hacks have Hayward telling the world the company always puts safety first and foremost. Bullshit. Governments can, by executive order, have all those operations nationalized and shut down. Do it.
3. One way or another, United States taxpayers will be paying for the aftermath for many years. No matter how much BP may eventually be forced to pay toward the cost, it won’t be enough. Since BP is not, strictly speaking, a U.S. corporation (when taking into account the holdings that are part of the London-based BP corporate empire), let’s start with nationalizing all the U.S. assets of BP. By “all the U.S. assets,” I mean real estate, leaseholdings on exploration and exploitation within the territorial United States, hardware, pipe, storage tanks and vessels, office furnishings, toilet paper – all of it.
There are probably other steps that could be taken, but these three, I think, would be a good start.

Dogs & Suds

2010-06-02T10:15:00.003+09:00

Over Memorial Day weekend, I satisfied (as best I could) a long-smoldering craving for chili dogs and root beer. The dogs were my own combination of chili, chopped onion and all-beef hot dogs on toasted whole-wheat rolls. The root beer came from a can, but at least I could come up with a frosted mug (Pour boiling water over the mug, then put it in the freezer compartment.)
Where I grew up, we had two A&W root beer stands, one on the north side of town, the other on the south side. Both made great Spanish hot dogs (chili dogs) and pumped that famous A&W root beer. I was happily surprised to find A&W root beer stands in Guam, Okinawa and the Philippines, too. Alas, the franchise has fallen on the same kind of hard times that wiped out other famous chains of the past (Howard Johnson's restaurants, once a Pennsylvania Turnpike treat, for example). Now, there is an A&W outlet beside a KFC (another once-good, now horrible food franchise) at one of the upper bench malls in Boise. But it's not the same.
I appreciate the background on the original A&W (see http://www.rootbeer.com), and I do think the modern version of A&W root beer is not bad. But it just ain't the same. For one thing, the companies aren't even the same. The drive-in chain has become a "full-service" operation, absorbed by Yum! Brands (which also owns Long John Silver's pseudo-seafood outlets), and the classic root beer beverage is mixed in there with 7-Up and Dr. Pepper (two other beverages that lost their identity long ago too) under the cleverly named Dr. Pepper/7-Up Inc. corporate umbrella. I can come up with a pretty good chili dog on my own, (and I've written previously about how to make a version of Kentucky fried chicken that the Colonel might not think is nearly as bad as what comes out these days under the brand that sullies his name). But I am really not up to trying to make my own root beer. There are other brands (Dad's, Barq's, Nesbitt's and Nehi (both of which made all kinds of other flavored soda pops back in the day), Barrelhead, and Weinhard's (which I think is the best commercial root beer nowadays). But I sure do miss the kind that came out of those big ol' barrels at the A&W drive-inn. The car hops were cute too. But that's another story.

Gyoza Party

2010-05-23T14:27:00.007+09:00

A lovely young lady knocked on my door tonight while I was making gyoza. She was actually looking for a party in another building, but I told her she would be welcome to come back and have gyoza if the other place turned out to be less exciting. She did not return, of course, but the brief encounter reminded me that gyoza is a great party food, because the making is as much fun as the eating.
I point out briefly here that this is also a way to buy a bulk amount of hamburger and make a combination of things that can be prepared and frozen for later enjoyment. I got two pounds of ground beef and used half for gyoza and half to make mini meatloafs, of which I will describe later.
Gyoza is originally Chinese, but I learned it in Japan. You will probably learn much more than I can tell you by checking out the official gyoza Web site at www:gyoza.org. Nevertheless, we are now international enough to be able to make it almost anywhere, using prepared wonton/gyoza wraps. Almost anything can go into the middle. I loved a place in Tokyo's Jiyugaoka, in Setagaya-ward, famous for stuffing gyoza with all kinds of good stuff, from garlic to cheese, and preparing it as soup, steamed and fried, or deep-fried. Yum.
For a nice party food, it's easy to make about 60 gyozas (which are basically like ravioli, and I am fairly certain Marco Polo and friends must have brought the idea back from China, added tomato sauce and turned it Italian. I added a cup of finely chopped garlic, a cup of finely chopped mushrooms, a stick of finely chopped celery (you can use Chinese or Napa cabbasge or bok choy, of course), a couple of thumbs of finely chopped ginger, six or eight finely chopped scallions, for a typical mix. Add a tablespoon of corn starch, two tablespoons of sesame oil, two tablespoons of soy sauce, a tablespoon of five-star hoisin sauce, and a splash of sake. Moosh it all together by hand so all the ingredients are well blended.
Separate the wonton skins and spoon a blob of the mixture onto the center. wet half of the outer edge of the skin with water, fold together, then pinch tightly.
To cook, add a tablespoon of sesame oil and enough water to cover the bottom of a small fry pan. Add about 10 or 12 of the gyoza with a little space between each, cover and bring to a boil. Uncover, reduce the heat a bit, and allow the gyoza to brown on one side. Turn, brown again and they are ready to eat or put in a container to freeze for later enjoyment.
Serve with a combination of layu (chili oil), white vinegar and soy sauce.
Of course this goes great with beer or sake or Chinese plum wine. It is also a good appetizer to go with stir-fried anything, some egg-drop soup and a fortune cookie!

Cooking for One (Continued)

2010-05-23T14:06:00.007+09:00

I really loved Jamie Oliver's effort to persuade American families to stop feeding their kids unhealthy foods and to wake up to the horrible abuses of wholesome cooking being perpetrated on our young folks. Of course he's not the first or only person to point out the ridiculousness of the U.S. Government standards for school lunch nutritional balance (ketchup as a vegetable, two carbs, God-knows-what byproducts in prepared luncheon meats, etc.) But it was a much-needed reminder we do not have to be obese or stupid.
I have been lucky to know how to eat healthy since I was a kid. Over time, I learned how to cook and I have been able to help my daughter with her cooking skills as well. We know cooking is not only fun but almost a survival skill in a culture surrounded by convenience foods. In defense, I have been working on my own convenience foods, minus the mystery crap in "prepared" foods at the supermarket. I know I can make better-tasting, more healthy, attractive, nutritionally balanced meals than anything in the frozen-foods section at the supermarket. And it is waay less expensive.
I cook for myself, and supermarket quantities are often intended for bigger families. So, as I've said before, I try to plan my purchases and my menu to account for the difference and to minimize waste and keep down my Social Security-induced budget.
I recently got a bargain on pork tenderloin in bulk. I broke up the package of eight fairly hefty chunks of good meat and froze most of it. And I used one of the chunks to make two servings (hearty servings at that) of stuffed tenderloin.
Stuffing is easy. I make bread, so I saved some of it and crumbled it up, dried it at 150F in the oven, and added it to a cup of chopped onion, a cup of chopped celery and two cups of mushrooms, two tablespoons of butter (yes, butter is fine as long as you don't have too much at one time.), water to cover, and some herbs. I used rosemary and basil, rough-crushed black pepper and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and stir.
I then cut the tenderloin pork in half horizontally, put the cooked stuffing into a 9x9-inch glass baking pan sprayed with olive oil, topped with the sliced pork, covered with aluminum foil and baked it at 350F (160C) for 40 minutes. I took off the foil and cooked another 20 minutes to brown the stuffing. This makes two hearty servings, one of which can be put in a container and stored in the freezer for at least a couple of weeks, so there is opportunity to make a lot of other recipes for the days in between.
I enjoyed one of the servings with a salad of fresh spinach and a whole tomato, hollowed out and stuffed with cottage cheese, and a side of mixed veggies -- green beans, peppers and onions.
The dessert is a raspberry turnover with vanilla ice cream. Is that bad?

Home Cookin'

2010-05-17T11:23:00.003+09:00

My sister came by today with some homemade mushroom soup, part of the bounty of a mountain trek that yielded a whole bunch of morels. Blessed with this little surprise, I wanted to make a Sunday supper that would take advantage of the soup and clear away some leftovers at the same time. So this is not exactly a recipe, but an idea for a meal of country-fried steak, garlic mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, and a spinach-daikon salad.
Earlier in this beautiful day, I was thinking of reviving my long-lost bartending skills, and I wanted to start simple with back-to-the-basics margaritas and bloody Marys. So, the supper was washed down with what I think is a pretty decent margarita.
To replicate this supper, you'd need cube steak, potatoes, veggies of choice (I used broccoli, colored peppers and onion, garlic, flour, cream, an egg, butter, rosemary, basil and coarse-ground black pepper, a little kosher salt, some olive oil and canola oil.
The main event is country-fried steak, which is a way of turning a not-so-great piece of beef into a tasty main course. It is a cube steak, dipped in beaten egg, then dredged in seasoned flour and fried like frying chicken. The rest, as they say, is gravy. (To actually make gravy, use the leftover flour-herb mixture and the leftover frying oil from the steak to make a roux, add milk and season to taste, stirring until thick. I didn't make gravy this time because the garlic mashed potatoes stand nicely on their own.)
First, peel and rinse potatoes. I recommend two or three fist-sized potatoes per serving. You will also need garlic, at least two or three cloves per serving. Rinse the potatoes, cut into small cubes, add minced chopped garlic, a dash of salt, and enough water to cover, and cook the combination. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer until fork-tender
Meanwhile, with the backside of a hefty knife, whack the cube steak on both sides. It will look big, but will cook itself back down to size. Add a tablespoon each of canola oil and olive oil to a big frypan and heat. Dip the cube steak in well-beaten egg, then dredge in a bowl that has at least two tablespoons of flour, a teaspoon each of rosemary and basil, a half-teaspoon of ground black pepper, a dash of salt and whatever other herbs strike your fancy. A little Worcester sauce is not a bad addition. Coat both sides of the cube steak with flour, then gently place in the frypan of hot oil to brown on both sides. Remove to drain the oil, then place on foil in a 325F oven while dealing with the rest of this meal.
When the potatoes are done enough, remove from heat, drain, mash the potatoes and add at least a tablespoon of butter and enough cream to make the potato-garlic combination smooth. Bring your veggie medley to a boil, reduce to simmer, drain and add a bit of butter. Shake the pan to coat with butter.
I then ladled out some of that nice mushroom soup (mushrooms, potatoes, butter, onion, salt and pepper) into a bowl and microwaved for a minute, then sprinkled a little dill over it to serve.
By this time, it's easy to plate the cube steak (country-fried steak), add a couple of scoops of the garlic mashed potatoes, and the veggies. I made a little salad of fresh spinach and daikon, made a simple dressing, and felt pretty good about cleaning the fridge while also having a tasty combination of healthy foods for supper.
We will deal with the margarita recipe in a future posting.
Sidebar
I mused earlier about the challenge of cooking for one, or more specifically, buying for one and managing to minimize waste. I remember as a kid being reminded that other people in the world don't have it so good, and for all the progress we've made in the decades since then, we in rich countries still haven't found a way to balance our gross excesses against the poverty, ignorance and hunger of too much of the rest of the world.
I'm not on a feed-the-poor kick here, but I do think it is a good idea to do what we can, and we can at least try to cook in ways that reduce our own sloth and minimize waste (and waist).

Stuffed Peppers

2010-05-13T10:11:00.006+09:00

One thing I miss about Japan is the opportunity to cook for and get critical opinions from friends. Here, I am mostly cooking for myself, and, frankly, I am not the best critic of my own cooking. Another factor that I deal with here that was not a problem in Tokyo (because there were always people to share my food with) is that I am cooking for one. So I am still learning how to handle portions and minimize leftovers.
In one way, I am lucky to live near Winco, a giant, 24/7 supermarket that has almost everything I need to cook any kind of cuisine. On the downside, Winco tends to be a family-oriented supermarket, which means large-quantity portions of things like meats and poultry, so I have to plan ahead to break down and freeze big portions into small portions.
So, fast foward to today, when I decided to make stuffed peppers. This was partly because I hoped to use the balance of colored (red, green and yellow) bell peppers I used to make the Thai shrimp salad described in the previous blog.
With everyone's involvement, I could reduce some leftover brown rice, plus the leftover peppers, and dine in style.
Here, rather than a recipe, I will say that I used 1/3 of a pound of ground beef. Usually, I buy in bulk, then divide the meat into one-third pound portions that I can freeze as patties. In an emergency, I can make a hearty cheeseburger. If there is more time, I can thaw the meat and use it to make something more fancy.
I also make larger portions of brown rice. That way, I have some for curry in a hurry, and some in the freezer for a shot at curry or some other treat. I could also use a fistfull of frozen green beans, since a bigger portion would have meant more leftovers.
So, here I am with the meat all cut and frozen, then a portion of brown rice.
I also had a tomato that probably would not have survived more than two or three days, so I thought I'd stuff it, too.
In short, then, we have one whole green bell pepper and two partial colored peppers (one red, one yellow) and one tomato. I added tomato paste, garlic, basil, oregano, thyme, cilantro, rosemary and thyme to one thawed beef patty, added a cup of cooked brown rice, about a tablespoon of chopped garlic, a generlous splash of Worcester sauce, and a bit of salt and pepper and mixed it up. I spooned the rice-meat mixture into the pepper portions, and added a little grated mozarella and grated Parmesan (equal portions) sprinkled over the top of the meat. I put the leftover mozarella-Parmesan into the hollowed-out tomato, put the peppers and tomato into a glass baking disy with a splash of olive oil and a bigger splash of red wine, and put it in a 350F oven for 40 minutes.
I would say it was delicious. I also wish I had a second opinion.

My Thai

2010-05-12T03:25:00.002+09:00

I have recently been on a Thai-food kick. With at least five Thai restaurants in Boise, including one just down the street, you might think it wouldn’t be necessary. But I like to remind myself that, even though I am in the part of the world where the deer and the antelope play, I learned a lot from my Asian experience, and keeping the distinctive character of different kinds of Asian cuisine is, for me, at least, important. Too much “fusion” can cause confusion.
So, after making not-bad red curry last week, it was time to make a shrimp salad. I might have been thinking about the impact of the horrid BP oil rig explosion and leak in the Gulf of Mexico and what it means for the shrimpers and the availability of shrimp. “Enjoy it while you can,” I guess. I wonder what the sailors felt after they dined on the last dodo?
Anyway, shrimp salad is basically shrimp and “salad,” and Thai shrimp salad means using a dressing that blends those essential chilis, ginger, garlic, sugar and I confess to using Japanese mirin and sake) and Thai nampla (fish sauce). Similar kinds of fish sauce are commonly used in Thai, Vietnamese, Lao, Cambodian and Philippine recipes.
The shrimp can be any kind, but of course they must be peeled, stripped of the poop vein and tails (unless you really like the tails). I used frozen Pacific jumbo shrimp. Plan on at least one cup of shrimp per serving, anyway. The shrimp I used were precooked, so I soaked them in water to thaw, drained, then soaked them again in sake (Japanese rice “wine”). Soaking in a cheap white wine also works, but sake gives a distinctly “Asian” taste.
Ingredients
The “salad” part of the salad includes:
1. Fresh ginger root (See how to select it and how to peel it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TQfU1J8fN8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLchfULS_jg&feature=related
2. Green onions (scallions!) http://homecooking.about.com/od/cookingfaqs/f/faqscallions.htm
3. Daikon (Literally “giant radish root,” but a good one is not “hot,” but rather pleasantly mild. Learn more here: http://whatscookingamerica.net/DaikonRadish.htm
4. Bell peppers (I use green, red and yellow to add color. The different colored peppers also have distinctive flavors. Learn more about their merits and nutritional value here: http://www.ourhometownfoods.com/nutritionInfo_MultiColoredPeppers.htm
5. Carrots (Rinse and scrape the outer skin gently away)
6. Celery (Rinse and peel away the “strings” )
7. Garlic (The amount can vary, depending on your taste. Garlic with the veggies is optional, but you definitely need it for the dressing. See Jamie Oliver’s advice on how to peel and chop garlic here: http://www.jamieoliver.com/about/jamie-oliver-videos/how-to-prepare-garlic )
8. 1 cup (or more) chopped fresh cilantro (coriander ) http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Exotic-Herbs-Spices-and-Salts-639/cilantro.aspx
The Veggie Prep
The most time-consuming part of the recipe is the preparation of the vegetables into matchstick-sized pieces,. Rinse, cut into pieces about 2 inches long, then slice them as thinly as possible, lengthwise. Here’s the technique: http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-julienne-vegetables-properly-191427/view/
For the Dressing
(and this is also a great sauce for Thai-style buffalo wings)
1. 1 cup water
2. 3 tsp. corn starch or tapioca-root starch
3. 3-4 cloves finely chopped garlic
4. 1 Tbsp. powdered chilis
5. ½ tsp. cayenne pepper powder
6. 1 Tbsp fresh-squeezed lime juice
7. 1 Tbsp. honey (Or more)
8. 2 Tbsp. fish sauce (Learn more here: http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/features/fishsauce1.html

The Dressing Prep
Dissolve the cornstarch in ¼ cup cool water. Set aside
Add the remaining ¾ cup water in a sauce pan, heat to a boil and add the remaining ingredients, stirring to smooth. Reduce heat and add the dissolved starch, stir until the sauce thickens (About 1 minute). Remove and adjust the taste by adding honey (I added brown sugar) or more lime juice and fish sauce to enhance saltiness.
Allow to cool in the fridge before adding to the vegetables.
Combine the matchstick vegetables in a large bowl and toss by hand.
Drain the shrimp and add to the vegetables. Toss again to combine. Pour the dressing over the shrimp-vegetable combination. Garnish with more coriander and thin-sliced lime pieces.

Enjoy

Yet Another Cheeseburger

2010-05-08T11:00:00.010+09:00

My favorite among various claims as to who came up with the first cheeseburger is Lionel Clark Sternberger, who, according to Time magazine, "experimentally dropped a slab of American cheese on a sizzling hamburger while helping at his father's sandwich shop in Pasadena, thereby inventing the cheeseburger." That would have been in 1924. Of course we also get a lot of negative stuff about cheeseburgers, so it's interesting, and perhaps ironic, to note the Time obit for Sternberger also notes that he died at the age of 56 of "complications following diabetes."
Nevertheless, I suppose cheeseburgers (basically a hamburger with cheese) are one thing we can cite as typically "American" food, in the sense that it's probably what people think of first, just as we think first of sushi as Japanese food or spaghetti as Italian or sauerkraut as German.
As long as we're stuck with it, we might as well make the best of it. So, "experimentally," I offer another alternative cheeseburger recipe. If you want more recipes for cheeseburgers, plus a lot more information about cheeseburgers than you would probably ever need, try the cheese-burger.net site.
This particular cheeseburger involves the following ingredients:
1/2 pound of ground buffalo (or lean ground beef with as little fat content as possible)
1 or 2 strips of bacon
1/2 a wheel (sliced through the middle, in other words) of Camambert or Brie cheese.
A handfull of finely chopped garlic
Rosemary and basil to taste
Red wine
1 Tbsp. olive oil
Coarsly ground black pepper

The prep
Form half the ground meat into a circle, forming an edge with a spoon. This will be the "container" for the cheese wheel.
Chop the mushrooms and combine with the chopped garlic, rosemary and basil and add to the ground meat base.
Form the other half of the ground meat into a circle and place it over the bottom, patting the two together so they are sealed. Apply the bacon strip (or strips) around the edge of the meat patty.
Add the olive oil to a cast-iron skillet. I have a small one about 7 inches in diameter, which is just right for this project.
Place the patty in the center of the skillet.
Sprinkle a splash or two of red wine over the top of the patty and add the black pepper.
Bake in a 350F (160C) oven for at least 30 minutes (for medium-rare) or longer, depending on how well-done you want it.
Remove the baked patty from the fry pan (gently, with a spatula) and allow the excess juice to be soaked up by paper towels, or drain on a cooling rack.
That's it. This burger is fine with or without the lettuce, pickles, tomato and so on, and works well on crusty bread, most likely washed down with the rest of that red wine.
You may also want to look at the entry on french fries here as a side.

The pictures show the way to build up the edge of the first meat patty like a pie, to hold the cheese and the mushroom-garlic mixture before adding the cover layer of meat.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870712,00.html#ixzz0nIbPQY24

Western Food

2010-04-27T04:47:00.002+09:00

One of many nice things about being where I am (Boise, Idaho, along the Oregon Trail) is that I can get good grub without investing and arm and/or leg. And the good grub includes what I will call, for lack of a better term, "Mexican food," which is hearty and healthy, although too much of what I am promoting today would probably not be considered "heart-healthy." This is a Western Omlette, and I consider it good for any meal of the day (also good as a hangover remedy). Now don't confuse this with the classic omlette (http://www.metacafe.com/watch1317423/how_to_make_the/perect/omlette/), although the advice on the video about how to prepare a "normal" omlette is just fine.
No, this one involves three eggs instead of two, to provide the foundation for supporting salsa, sausage, cheese, green onion, garlic and random herbs and spices (cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, chipotle, cilantro, black pepper and a tiny bit of salt).
You will need:
3 eggs
Olive oil
Cheese (sharp cheddar, Cojack, Longhorn, Monterey Jack, for example)
Fresh cilantro (finely chopped)
2 green onions (chopped)
Garlic (3-4 bits, finely chopped
Half-pound hot Italian sausage (tart it up with sage, chili powder and cumin)
1/2 cup salsa (I'll assume you know how to make salsa for now, but will provide a decent salsa recipe in another posting).
Optional: Sour cream or cottage cheese
2-3 corn tortillas, toasted.
The process
Add 1 Tbsp. olive oil to a small (6-7 inch diameter) fry pan. Over medium heat, break up and brown the sausage, adding sage, cumin, green onion and garlic. Drain and set aside.
In a small bowl, beat the three eggs with a handful of chopped cilantro. Add a dash of black pepper. (NOTE: The flavors all come together eventually, but what you add to the eggs will affect the first flavor "hit" when you take a bite.
Add 1 Tbsp oilive oil to the same fry pan. Stir in the egg-cilantro mixture. Quickly place slices of cheese over the egg mixture, then spread 3-4 Tbsp of salsa over the center of the mixture, add about half the sausage and let the omlette cooke over low heat. Flip deftly (when the egg is cooked enough, it should slide in one easy piece to one side of the pan, making it easy to fold in half, then fold again. Don't worry if the cheese and "stuffing" dribbles out. It's all good.
For plating, break up the tacos on a plate, then roll out the omlette. Cover with the rest of the salsa and sausage. Serve with some sour cream or cottage cheese.
In the picture, you'll see I had mine with a bowl of Marion berries and yogurt, coffee, and a tequila limeade. It goes together quite well.

Country Fried Chicken

2010-04-26T05:38:00.003+09:00

I recall childhood days when the family would go on vacation to Florida the hard way, driving through the scenic hills of Kentucky and Tennessee the hard way (before the Interstate network). Once, we stopped in Kentucky overnight at a motel that had a pool (remember this was in the 1950s) and was lined with knotty pine paneling. In the morning, a piped-in wake-up call included chirping birds and crowing roosters. But the real treat was supper the night before. It was the original Colonel Harlan Sanders Kentucky fried chicken (before being spoiled by takeovers and franchising). I never forgot the taste of that fried chicken, although I have had many other kinds of fried chicken just as good in their way, and I keep trying to get my recipe closer to what I remember that 1940s version tasted like.
There were two things about the Colonel's cooking method that made it special. One was the pressure-frying technique, followed by baking to drain the excess oil and enhance the crispiness. The other was the blend of herbs and spices. I want to say it involved 15 different herbs and spices, but I'm honestly not sure.
I use the "mom's old-fashioned" technique of double-coating and shaking the chicken pieces in a paper bag to evenly coat the flour mixture. I also use a "tempura-like" technique of adding corn starch to the flour mixture to help enhance the crispiness.
Ingredients
One chicken, cut up, skin on. Or a dozen legs, four breasts, or similar combination of your favorite chicken parts.
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. sage
1 tsp. rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp dried cilantro
1 tsp crushed black pepper
1/1 tsp cardamon
1/2 tsp powdered clove
1 egg
1/3 cup whole milk
1/2 cup canola oil with two Tbsp. butter (no substitutes, sorry.)
Technique
Beat the egg and milk in a glass pie pan or other flat dish
combine all the dry ingredients into a paper grocery bag. I use double-bagging for safety.
Dredge the chicken pieces one by one on all sides and drop into the bag with the flour mixture. Shake the bag (hold the bottom).
Remove the chicken pieces, dredge in the egg-milk again and drop back into the bag, shake again.
Heat the oil-butter mixture in pressure cooker. Carefully drop in the coated chicken pieces. Cover and seal (5 pounds pressure is enough. If you don't have a pressure cooker, a good skillet will do, but reduce heat and cover with aluminum foil to prevent spattering). Cook about 10 minutes to brown, turn the pieces and repeat.
Remove the pieces from the oil and place on a baking pan with a rack to allow the excess oil to drip away. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350F for a half-hour, turn the pieces and bake another half-hour.

The accent for the fried chicken is twice-baked potatoes.
I use Idaho bakers. Wash and pat-dry the potato. Cut the skin on top of the potato to create a vent. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for one hour.
Remove the potato and carefully cut a large opening in the top (hold the potato for this, because it's not easy. Use a baking mitt, of course!) Scrape out the potato into a bowl, add 1 Tbsp. of butter (or sour cream) and mash the potato with a fork. Add a little cream or milk to get the desired consistency. Whip the mixture, then spoon it back into the potato skin. At this point, you could add a piece of cheddar or some cream cheese to the top of the mashed potato. Place on a piece of foil to prevent dribbling the cheese on the bottom of the oven and return the potato for another 35 minutes, or until the cheese is slightly brown.

Pizza Without the Crust

2010-04-23T11:13:00.004+09:00

Here's a little twist on a comfort-food favorite, mac and cheese. This is pizza macaroni and cheese. Basically, it is all the stuff you would put on a deluxe pizza, but swapping out the crust for macaroni. I'm not sure that there's any dietary advantage to this, but it is a way of having some pizza-like stuff handy without actually making a pizza (or without resorting to those too-salty ready-made frozen pizza snack things.)
I do this with a pound (440 grams) of ground beef. You could use pepperoni, sausage or ground turkey. I also used shell macaroni although any kind of pasta will do. I would say one cup of shells for a pound of meat.
Ingredients
1 lb ground beef (or your favorite pizza meat)
2 cups shredded mozarella cheese
1 cup black olives (sliced)
1 cup stuffed green olives (sliced)
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
4-5 chunks of garlic, about half a clove for my taste, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, sliced thin
1 medium red bell pepper, sliced thin
2 medium tomatoes (chopped) or 1 can diced tomatoes
1 standard jar of Ragu pizza quick sauce
Herbs: To your taste, oregano, Italian parsley, basil, rosemary, black pepper, red pepper.
2 Cups pasta shells or macaroni elbows
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Olive oil

Tools:
! large glass baking dish
Spray bottom and sides with olive oil
Preheat oven to 350F (160C)

Instructions
Saute the onion and garlic until translucent. I use olive oil,
Brown the beef (or cook whatever meat you choose if not precooked)
Combine the meat, onions and garlic with the other ingredients.
Add the pasta sauce. (I pour a little leftover red wine into the jar, seal and shake to help get whatever sauce may be hiding inside. This also makes it easier to clean the jar for recycling).
Add herbs to taste.
Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and add two or three drops of olive oil. This will help keep the water from boiling over and will also help keep the macaroni from sticking to itself. Drop in the pasta shells and boil about 8 minutes, stirring now and then.
Drain the pasta and add it to the meat-other stuff mixture, stirring in the mozarella.
Spread the combination over the baking dish. Cover the mixture with parmesan. I confess I cheated and added more sliced tomatoes and a layer of thinly sliced mozarella on top too, then sprinkled some dried oregano over it before baking.
Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the cheese develops a health bronze color.
That's it.

I scooped some out for the second picture, above, to help show the combination of color and texture of the finished pizza-mac.

One Year Out

2010-04-16T03:35:00.002+09:00

Today is tax day, one calendar day ahead of the first anniversary of my return to the U.S. after a very long time in Japan. And, since it was indeed a very long time -- roughly half my life, so far -- re-entry in another place has been at the least interesting, with a fair bit of trauma in the process. I am grateful to my sister and others who have helped minimize the emotional decompression, but I have to say I am, apart from getting a break in terms of language, still something of a gaijin in my own land.
Most of that is my own doing. To be honest, I am enjoying the time I now have to read, to experiment more with my cooking, and to watch movies I missed while in Japan. I do get out, especially in the beautiful spring that is gradually unbuttoning to reveal the beauties of nature. (sounds sexy). There are cherry and other blossoms in Boise, Idaho, although not the kind that people sit under with obento and beer. I will celebrate my year with a good steak and a glass of red, contemplating the changes.
What changes? Well, I'm solo. I sleep when I want and wake when I choose. I grind my own coffee beans. I don't have a wife, a house, a car, a job. I have more music than ever. I ride my bike along the river. When I've finished this entry, I will go out on the balcony to clean out the planting boxes, sweep the carpet and make sure the lounge chair is in shape for a summer of people-watching.
One significant adjustment is economic. As I am now at the tender mercies of the Social Security system, I get buy on about one-tenth what I was making in Japan. Even with the difference in costs of living here and there, that is quite a change. And because the United States has no discernible "health care system," I am forced to take care of myself, which means I am more conscious of the importance of a healthy lifestyle. I can say that it is possible for a single old fart like myself to get along on Social Security, but it means doing without a lot of things I took for granted in Japan. I still enjoy wine, and there are lots of good, not-too-expensive wines available, but I drink less of it. I probably exercise more, since feet and a bicycle are my most common means of transportation.
I am busy. I am conducting a course in literary appreciation for adults, which requires a fair amount of reading and research. I have another Blog that deals with the course, too. I brought next to nothing with me from Japan, but I have acquired some sturdy second-hand furniture that makes the apartment comfortable. I have just signed a new lease, so I will be here for at least the next year. It's probably too big for one person, but I'll hang on to it until I know what my daughter's plans are when she's out of college.
What's up for the second year? Well, I do plan to learn blues harmonica. And I do have the book, which I am thinking about now and then, but have not started, pending conclusion of the course I'm teaching. I will have to spend less on concert attendance in the year ahead, but I hope I can make up for that by devoting more time to rebuilding the guitar player skills. And I'll keep cooking.

Valentine's Day

2010-02-15T11:07:00.005+09:00

Face it, if you are in love, being alone on Valentine's Day is really, honest-to-God lonely! I know there are lots of things that should be on the menu when dining with the one you love--oysters, roast beef, asparagus, strawberries, chocolate, lavender and mint--but what do you eat when you're alone? Regular readers of this blog will know by now I am not the kind of guy to eat something from a can or a TV dinner. So today's solo Valentine's Day dinner was salmon.
I am learning about "plating," which is the presentation of food on plates. So I was practicing today not only with the menu but with the presentation of the meal. I try to use flowers, usually, but today was sort of an off day for that, since most of the flower shops are pushing Valentine arrangements. I'll wait a bit. Meanwhile, I could at least arrange the table for a Valentine mood.
Then there is the actual food.
The main item is salmon. This is salmon first seared with olive oil, then slowly poached in white wine.
While the poaching was going on, I quartered and boiled some baby Dutch potatoes. I also blanched some asparagus spears. Asparagus is supposed to be slightly aphrodisiac. I only know it is good in spring.
I also had a flash of inspiration from memories of vacations to Florida and having my very first shrimp cocktail at Howard Johnson's. The restaurant chain, famed for its franchise on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and especially for its 28 delicious flavors of ice cream, no longer exists. Like so many once-good ideas that got bastardized by corporate greed, Howard Johnson's lost touch with its family core audience and fell by the wayside, so to speak. There were once carrot curls and parsley sprigs and really classy but not-expensive choices on the menu. Pierre Franey was contracted to provide advice on cuisine and the franchise briefly had a lock on the niche, only to lose it, of course!
I digress... anyway, the shrimp cocktail. So I made my own.Shrimp, boiled in white wine and lemon juice, drained, chilled. Mixed ketchup, horseradish and a dash of soy sauce.... A bed of greens, with some cross-cut green onions.... Not bad at all.
I also sliced some baby tomatoes and added them to a few mixed herbs for garnish for the main plate.
The only other minor touches were some sliced garlic for the potatoes, with olive oil, salt and pepper. And I made a little blue cheese-cream cheese accent for the asparagus, with rose peppercorns. I sprinkled dill on the salmon and paprika into the shrimp before putting it over the salad greens.
A little Pinot grigio and we are there. Or I should say I am there, alone!..... sigh.

This Spud's For You

2010-02-09T09:31:00.005+09:00

I will always respect people who work at fast-food places, because that was how I learned the secret of crisp french fries. French fries are not necessarily French, by the way, although the origin is based on the deep-fry approach to cooking things. Many people get cravings for french fries, but can't seem to get them to come out crispy at home.
It's not hard, but it does require the Boy Scout approach to cooking: Be prepared. Prepare several hours in advance, and you are all but certain to turn out crisp, golden-brown fries at home too. The "secret" is rinsing, blanching, and chilling (or freezing) before the finishing fry step.
Since I'm in Idaho, I have all kinds of good spuds at hand. The variety doesn't matter much, because the rinsing will get rid of most of the excess starch, which is what makes home-fried fries soggy. Peeling also ensures that all the fries will be crispy. Leave the skin on if you like, but the pieces with skin will not be as uniformly crisp. Cut the potato into stips. About one-quarter inch on a side seems to be the optimum for uniform cooking, but we're not measuring here.
Put the cut potato pieces in clear cold water for about an hour, changing the water a couple of times to rinse away the leeched potato starch. I then put the potato pieces on paper towel to blot away excess water.
Blanching can be done in a fry pan, with enough oil (I use a blend of nine parts canola and one part peanut oil for taste, to cover the bottom of the pan about one-quarter inch deep. You don't need to use a deep-fry vat. Heat the oil (medium-high is usually enough). I drop a test potato piece in first. It should quickly bob to the surface bubbling. Add potatoes to cover the bottom of the pan, but don't overload. It's better to make two or three small batches. Blanching should cook the potato to a translucent color, just as the edges start to turn color. Remove the potato pieces, drain away the oil and place in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. An overnight stay in the freezer compartment works even better.
After the potatoes are blanched and chilled, they are ready to be cooked in hot oil. Finishing to a nice golden brown takes just a few minutes per batch. Drain the pieces and sprinkle with a little salt and you're in homemade french fry heaven.

Curry Favor

2010-02-07T08:52:00.002+09:00

There is still some dispute about the origins of curry. It is widely considered to be of south India origin, with the word coming from Sanskrit. Certainly curries in their many forms are among the most widely popular cuisines. I was thinking about this while making some Vietnam-style curry (Cari ga Vietnam). There is plenty of time to think about such things while making curry, because curry-making invariably takes a long time to do right.
At the heart of curry is the combination of spices. India has garam masala, and all curries worthy of the name involve some proportions of cumin, ginger, coriander, peppers and turmeric. Different masalas use different kinds of pepper, but usually chilis of some kind. From the aroma, I tend to think curries all over the world start with the basic spice combination, however, and the Vietnam-style curry has lemon grass and perhaps more ginger and garlic than others. The kind I make is also more of a soup than curries from India.
Of course centuries ago, curries spread throughout India and Asia and on to Africa, largely through trade in the spices that make them so appealing. Now, fortunately, thse spices are readily available in most supermarkets. I was fortunate to have some chilis and other spices from Cambodia to help with this, and the Boise Co-Op, which has almost everything for making almost anything, had the nuoc mam (fermented fish sauce) to make it more identifiably Vietnamese (although similar kinds of fish sauce are as common as ketchup in the Philippines, Thailand and throughout most of Southeast Asia.
So, here is a basic recipe for Vietnam-style chicken curry to serve six to eight people. It can be served with pho (noodles) or rice.
Ingredients
2 Tbsp. oil (I use half canola and half olive oil)
1 whole chicken, cut into pieces.
1 medium onion, cut into chunks
4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 shallots, sliced thin
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger root (peeled and sliced thin)
1 stalk lemon grass
4-6 Tbsp. curry powder
3 carrots, sliced
2 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
1 green or red bell pepper, sliced thin
2 bay leaves
2 kaffir lime leaves
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 (or more) chili, chopped fine. You may want to remove the seeds first, depending on how hot you like it and what kind of pepper you use.
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 chicken bullion cube
1 vegetable bullion cube
1 bunch cilantro (coriander)
Water to cover

Preparation
Heat the oil in a large pot, adding chicken pieces and onions. Stir and cook until the onions are translucent. Remove and set aside.
In the pot. Stir in garlic, ginger, shallots, lemon grass and the curry powder, adding the bell pepper and carrots. Return the chicken and onion to the pot, add the fish sauce, pepper and bay and lime leaves and add water to cover. Add the potatoes, bring to a boil and add the coconut milk. Reduce heat to simmer about an hour.
Remove the chicken and strip and discard skin and bones. I then shred the chicken meat, but that’s optional. Return the chicken to the pot and simmer an additional half-hour.
I’d say it’s ok to have some ruou can about this time. That’s Vietnamese rice wine. Beer is also good, but I’d recommend Tiger (Singapore) or San Miguel (Philippines) over Vietnamese brands.
Serve over white rice with fresh chopped cilantro (coriander)
I am having mine with a side salad made of boiled shrimp, chopped red, green and yellow bell peppers, chopped onion and chopped cilantro, in a dressing of ginger, red pepper, vinegar and brown sugar, mirin and a dash of soy sauce, drizzled with fresh-squeezed lime juice.
I have not yet had all the regional possibilities of curry, but I’m eager to try. I can say that so far, it seems that Indian curries are more like stews or what Americans think of when having chili. These are fairly thick gravies, (with or without meat) and veggies, especially beans or other lentils. The curries of Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam generally have more broth. Japanese curry is sweeter and much less spicy-hot than most.

Microwave Cooking

2010-01-26T07:38:00.002+09:00

Yes, not everyone has all the pots and pans and parts for cooking as seen on “Iron Chef.” So for my daughter, and for others who may be working with limited resources, here are some recipe ideas that involve a microwave range and a minimum of other things.
Of course there are many other places to look for similarly simple microwave recipes. One good one is from the makers of Glad brand bags. Their site (http://www.glad.com/simplycooking/steaming.php) has neat (as in not messy) ideas. Another site is http://www.microwaverecipe.net/.
That said, here are some of my own tried-and-tested ideas. Keep in mind that cooking times may vary depending on the power of your microwave range. Be sure to use microwave-safe dishes in the range and be careful handling foods just out of the microwave, as they will be hot hot.
Meatloaf
Ingredients:
1 lb (440 grams) lean ground beef or ground turkey
1/2 cup crushed cracker crumbs
2 large eggs
½ cup ketchup
1 small white or yellow onion, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped, or ½ teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce
Preparation:
Mix ingredients in one bowl, form by hand into a loaf shape in a microwave-safe baking dish. Cook on high for 3 minutes, rotate the dish halfway and cook another three minutes, then rotate again and cook another 4 minutes. Let set in the range for 4 minutes before serving.

Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 sweet potato
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp sour cream (optional)
Preparation:
Wash and scrub potato. Poke the skin several times with a fork and place in the center of the range turntable. Cook on high 6 minutes. (add about 3 minutes for each additional potato if making more.)
Slice the potato in the middle and mash with a fork. Add the butter. Microwave an additional 30 seconds. Serve with the sour cream for a different taste.

Cauliflower with Mustard Sauce
Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
½ cup real mayonnaise
¼ cup Dijon mustard
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
Preparation:
Place cauliflower into microwave-safe casserole dish, cover with plastic wrap and poke holes in it Microwave on high 6 minutes.
Combine mayonnaise and mustard in a small bowl, then spread over the cauliflower. Sprinkle shredded cheese over the top, microwave again about 2 minutes, or until cheese melts.

Chili
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. salad oil
1 Lb. (440 grams) lean ground beef or turkey
1 medium-size onion, chopped
1 or 2 large cans (7 oz. each) diced green chiles 1 can (14 1/2 oz.) regular-strength chicken broth
1 can (14 1/2 oz.) tomatoes
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon each ground cumin and ground coriander
2 teaspoons dry oregano leaves
1 large can (about 28 oz.) kidney beans, drained
Preparation:
Pour oil into a 3-quart microwave-safe casserole; tip casserole to coat bottom evenly with oil. Crumble meat into casserole; microwave, uncovered, on high setting for 3 minutes, stir, then cook for another 3 minutes. Add chiles, broth, tomatoes and liquid, spices and herbs, cover and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add beans and stir. Cook uncovered on high for 7-8 minutes, stir, and cook another 7-8 minutes. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Serve with our cream or plain yogurt, cheddar cheese and fresh cilantro (coriander)

Chocolate Volcano Cupcake
Ingredients:
4 Tablespoons cake flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa
(Or four Tablespoons of Nestle’s Quik or similar chocolate drink mix in place of the sugar and cocoa)
1 standard Hershey’s chocolate bar, broken into small bits (or a half-cup of chocolate morsels)
1 egg
3 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons oil
1 microwave-safe cup or mug
Preparation:
Mix flour, sugar and cocoa, egg, milk and oil in the mug. Press the chocolate pieces into the center of the mixture with a spoon.
Microwave on high for 3 minutes. Wait one minute before opening the range, to let the cake rise, then settle. The chocolate pieces will be melted inside the cake.

I'll add more. Other recipe ideas are always welcome!

Ethnic Pride and Joy

2010-01-21T12:51:00.003+09:00

A good conversation re-starter is to ask other guests, "If you had to subsist for the rest of your life on just one country's cuisine, which country would you choose?"
Putting national pride aside for a moment, it would still be difficult to nail down any one country, I think, although French friends may disagree. Certainly, high up in the food chain (so to speak) would have to be Italian.
Keeping in mind that Italy is a long country that extends from waaay up in the alps to waay down into sunny Middle Earth, Italy certainly does have an excellent variety of foods and flavors, and can draw from a wide range of ingredients for a wholesome, well-balanaced, and delicious range of foods. I'm still not sure whether ramen and spaghetti have the same heritage, and certainly Italian wine can compete with the best in the world to wash down whatever bounty is offered.
Since Saint Valentine's Day is approaching, and love is in the air, to one degree or another, I wanted to set the table and dedicate a meal to love. And Italian is, to me, at least, the most romantic of cuisines. (Sorry French folks!)
Certainly there is plenty of pasta to choose from, but for this meal, I chose ravioli. These are little pockets of flavor, which could be cheese, meat, vegetable, or any combination, best served with a counterpoint sauce. In this case, the sauce is tomato-based (northern and central Italy), with garlic, mushrooms and Merlot. There are four cheeses (Mozarella, Gorgonzola, Parmesan and Ricotta) in each little pasta puff.
And there are the meat balls. I'm not Italian, and I know there are all kinds of delicious variations on the ingredients, but these are ground beef (not hamburger), with three kinds of chopped onion, garlic, and colorful bell peppers, mushroom, egg, bread crumbs, whole black peppercorns, basil, cilantro, Italian parsley, thyme, rosemary, and a dash of salt, all squished together in golfball-sized balls and baked for about 45 minutes at 350F (160C). I found a zuchini hiding in the vegetable drawer, so I sliced that, blanched it, drained the water and added butter and grated Parmesan. For variety of color, texture and a range of vitamins and minerals, I built a little salad from a pile of sprouts, slices of bell pepper, some fresh herbs and spinach and a few baby tomatoes, cut in half and splashed with an oil-vinegar-parmesan dressing.
This, as with most Italianate food, should be washed down with a hearty red.
So what makes it a Valentine meal? Well, I forget, exactly, but maybe the red tomato sauce (tomatoes are also called love apples, after all!). Or maybe I was just in a romantic mood at the time.

Soup's On

2010-01-14T06:28:00.003+09:00

When I was in high school, I was pressed into cooking for myself and my sister. Something out of a can got boring very quickly. So I began to experiment and improvise. As much as I enjoy making things from scratch, I have to confess some very good things have been made with Campbell's soups as a base. Last night, I wanted something simple and came up with this one. It's a shrimp bisque with green peas over rice. Nothing fancy at all, but the taste is not bad.
Begin with Campbell's tomato soup. Add four tablespoons each of sour cream and cream cheese and blend it into the soup base, add a splash of white wine, and set it aside. Now simmer two cups of frozen peeled shrimp in a saucepan of water and white wine, with a dash of salt. This helps kill the "frozen" taste. Drain the shrimp and add to the soup mixture, and simmer the combination.
Cook a cup of frozen green peas. I just use water with a bit of salt, boil quickly, drain, then add a teaspoon of butter.
I usually have some leftover plain white rice in the freezer, but I'd just say that when you boil rice, replace about one-third of the water with sake and then boil. This really brings out the flavor.
The rest is easy.... remove the soup-shrimp from heat and spoon it over as much rice as you can handle. Sprinkle the green peas over the top and it's ready to eat.
To show off a little with the presentation, I spray olive oil in a bowl, then spoon rice into the bowl, pat it and turn it over into a bigger bowl. This adds appeal for other rice-related dishes like curries or stroganoff, too.

Plain of Fancy

2010-01-11T08:37:00.003+09:00

If you've ever watched Iron Chef or similar cooking-competition shows, you are probably impressed by the presentations and the often unconventional combinations of ingredients the contenders come up with. The innovations are a refreshing departure from the familiar meat-and-two-veg meals most of us are brought up on. The familiar, such as the roast beef, potatoes and gravy and peas here, are in the realm of "comfort food" we return to. But the unfamiliar, or the familiar put together in different ways, can be even more appealing. And it doesn't have to involve expensive ingredients or very complicated preparation. For example, consider the salmon dinner here. This is a salmon filet with blue cheese and blueberries. The baby potatoes are boiled, then seared and sprinkled with ground dried mushrooms. The asparagus is on a bed of bean sprouts. In the background is a very simple appetizer of tofu with soy sauce and a little ground ginger, sprinkled with chopped green onions.
I think we (men, women and children), should all learn as much as we can about how to prepare things from scratch, just as I think we should be able to tie our own shoes, build a fire, sew on a button or make good chocolate-chip cookies. But it does not mean I think we should always do everything from scratch just because we can. Watch the Iron Chef-type shows and you will see the featured chefs have assistants. There is a lot of chopping and blending and boiling and searing and such that takes a lot of time. And that's great.
But with this salmon dinner, for example, I used two pots--a small stainless saucepan with lid to boil, then sear the potatoes, and a small frypan with a lid to sear, then slow-simmer the salmon. The bean sprouts were simply rinsed and drained. The asparagus spears were individually flash frozen, so I "cooked" them by microwave for 30 seconds and sprinkled a little sesame oil on top. The potatoes were cut at quarters and about halfway through, boiled, then seared at high temperature with half olive oil and half canola oil, then sprinkled with salt and ground pepper and dried mushroom before serving. The salmon was also frozen, cut from a big slab. I sprayed the filet with olive oil and sprinkled the skin side with salt and pepper, squeezed a lemon and a lime over the top, then seared it skin-side down, adding a splash of white wine and covering, reducing the heat to simmer until it was done.
The "fancy" sauce is blue cheese, crumbled with a tablespoon of mayonaise (real, not salad dressing!), and a dribble of lemon juice. After spooning it over the salmon, I added several frozen blueberries. Yes, frozen.
The decoration is just salad herbs, a bit of red bell peper, and thin slices of the lemon and lime. It has the combination of eye appeal, color, texture, flavor variety, and healthful ingredients that all meals (ideally) should have, and cost perhaps $1 at most for the ingredients. I'd say that makes it almost qualify as "comfort food."

Bachelor Padding

2009-12-23T09:47:00.003+09:00

'Tis the season, and I got an inclination for s sandwich but I am frankly not crazy about the store-bought kind. So, I rode the bike across town to the Co-Op (which has everything), and invested in a fresh loaf about two feet long.
Bread is about half the secret to a very good sandwich of any kind, and Boise is blessed with at least a couple of the best bakeries in the world. That makes the rest easy.
For this particular project, I used about a half-pound of sliced baked ham, a similar amount of pepper salami, a half-pound of Mozarella, of which half was sliced and the rest shredded. I added two sliced Italian tomatoes, half a red bell pepper, a handful of basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary and ataragon, four thin-sliced cloves of garlic, and a couple of splashes of balsamic vinegar over the tomatoes. The technique for making this is not really a technique: a couple of splashes of virgin olive oil over the bread, then a base of mozarella slices, then layers of meat, tomatoes, peppers, and the shredded cheese on top, a few shakes of parmesan, the garlic slices, and some pepper on top, then into the oven on a baking pan at 400F for 15 minutes.
Since the portion control is over the top for even a serious sandwich craving, I cut this in half, wrapped one half in aluminum foil for later, and ate the other half with most of a bottle of Cab.
It's just one of a bunch of possibilities for fine solo dining I plan to expand upon in a screed I am working on called Bachelor Padding. The point of Bachelor Padding will be to show that a person who is single, specifically an old fart like myself (although similarly unattached females could surely do it too), can survive happily on a minimal income. I'd be glad to address any questions on the finer points or take any helpful hints anyone would care to pass along for the general good of all. Cheers.

Holidays, Gradualluy

2009-12-01T04:28:00.004+09:00

One friend and former colleague in Tokyo lamented having to listen to Christmas songs at the supermarket around Halloween. I have always found it difficult to get in a Christmas mood without seeing at least a little snow, so here we are, having seen and actually fiddled with, snow and almost finished the Thanksgiving leftovers, gradually getting ready to get ready to be in the mood for Christmas-yearend holidays.
It costs a lot to relocate from one part of the world to another. The cost is emotional, as well as monetary, of course, but at least part of the expense of moving for me was in shipping a lot of candles, bears and Christmas decorations that I could have replaced easily and at far less than the cost of shippping. Sigh...
Having said that though, I'm glad to have some of those familiar bears, candles and decorations here. I even found a decent replacement pseudo-tree, which is now up and looking not bad at all. So the holiday mood is gradually moving in. I've been to the mall already, helping Mom get new boots, and getting lost while trying to find the holiday meat-log shop. I did buy one gift that I actually wanted to buy, plus a couple that I frankly don't know quite what to do with because I was so besmitten by a lovely saleslady named Maya, whose sales pitch was impossible to resist (at the time). I need to watch that.
The rest of the Christmas shopping will consist of finding a bulk source of chocolate-covered cherry cordials. As the countdown continues, I have so far heard identifiably Christmas-song music only three times. Since it is just about to become December, I consider that a positive sign that I have not surrendered to the season too far ahead of plan. In any case, happy holiday of your choice, whenever and wherever that may be.

Pre-Thanksgiving Stew

2009-11-25T11:00:00.005+09:00

With Thanksgiving just a couple of days away, and nights chilly enough for something substantial to follow the previously posted adobo (which disappeared without a trace), I built the first beef stew of the season. This has always been something I made intuitively, but for my daughter and a surprisingly large following who don't have the same intuuition, I finally put it down on paper and here.
This recipe makes enough for at least four people. Most of the things I make are intended for about that many portions, and I am not good at making meals for just myself.
Ingredients
1 pound of beef sirloin, cut into cubes.
1 10-ounce bag of pearl onions
1 pound of baby carrots (peeled and washed
1 stalk of celery, de-stringed and cut lengthwise, then into half-inch bits
1 pound of baby potatoes. Core out the eyes but save as much peeling as you can, as this is the part that has lots of vitamins and minerals.
4-5 ounces of sliced mushrooms (four or five large mushrooms)
1/2 clove of garlic, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. mixed herbs if already prepared, or 1/3 cup if chopped from fresh ingredients, such as sage, basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme and oregano.
Three whole bay leaves
1 tsp. ground black pepper, plus 1/2 tsp. ground five-color pepper.
1 each beef boullion and vegetable boullion cubes

The Prep
Dredge the beef chunks in a mixture of two tablespoons of flour, the herbs and pepper.
Prepare a large pot with a blend of half canola oil and half olive oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan.
Brown the beef cubes on all sides and stir in the sliced garlic. This uses relatively high heat, so stir often to prevent sticking or burning. Add a splash of wine, stir again, then add the rest of the flour mixture and the boullion cubes. Cover the beef cubes with water, add a splash of red wine and let the beef simmer briefly. Uncover, add the potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and celery, and enough water to come just to the top of the potatoes. Add the bay leaves, cover and turn heat down to low to simmer for at least an hour, stirring now and then.
The wine for this was Golorado Grand Valley DeBeque Canyon Red Fox Merlot, vintage 2003. This has 13 percent alcohol, which is good for bringing out the flavor of decent beef without overwhelming it. It is also a darn good drinking wine, fairly bold with ripe fruit and a plum-like finish that makes the stew broth worth enjoying with some crusty French bread and, as I like to say, "more wine."
Bon apetit!

Soul Pagluto

2009-11-02T13:06:00.012+09:00

Ask most folks from the Philippines what food they like best and they will probably say "adobo, of course." But pinning down just what adobo is involves a lot more than opening a Filipino cookbook. Adobo is basically stewed pork, chicken or seafood, or a combination of two or all three, sometimes with vegetables. and there is beef adobo and adobo sa gata, with coconut milk... Adobo originates in the Spanish word for marinade. But again, the marinade for adobo can include all sorts of things. One helpful Filipino cookbook says adobo is a kind of pork teriyaki. But equating adobo marinade with teriyaki marinade is about as useful as trying to compare oatmeal and roast duck. In short, getting the definitive recipe for adobo is as elusive as nailing Jell-O to a barn door with a pitchfork.
That said, however, and being a foodophile with friends in the Philippines, I herewith venture a version of adobo that I think is pretty good, and some of my Filipino (and Filipina) friends have grudgingly agreed. It is a nice change of pace from other kinds of stews, and is not all that hard to make. Here we go.
Ingredients
2 pounds of pork or chicken. (I'm using a pork roast for this particular demonstration)
1 clove of garlic
1 medium onion
1/2 cup soy sauce (Use the real thing, please)
1 cup water
1/2 cup sake--rise wine
1 tablespoon paprika
5 whole bay leaves
1 thumb-sized chunk of fresh ginger
1 Tablespoon rough-ground black pepper and 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vinegar. I use balsamic, which has a more elegant flavor.
2 Tablespoons corn starch
4-5 Tablespoons cooking oil. I use half canolla oil and half olive oil.

Tools: You will need a stew pot, a frying pan, and three mixing bowls, and a few sheets of paper towel.

Preparation

Trim excess fat from meat and cut into cubes, roughly thumb-sized, or the same size you would use for stew meat.
Combine the water, sake, vinegar, soy sauce, salt, paprika, pepper and peppercorns and bay leaves in a big bowl. Add the cubed pork and stir so the marinade covers the meat. Cover with plastic wrap and let it marinate for at least an hour (refrigerate for safety, especially if you are in a warm place). I added a little cilantro to the marinade, simply because I had some handy.

Chop the onion and garlic fine and saute in two tablespoons of oil, stirring often, until translucent. Dump into a bowl and set aside.

Peel and thinly slice and chop the chunk of ginger.

Now, time out here to say that adobo is usually served with plain white rice, but I made saffron rice, and added a couple of shots of sake to the water for cooking. Use whatever rice you like, even minute-rice.

Pour the marinade and pork into a cooking pot, sprinkle the chopped ginger over the top, and add the bay leaves. Bring the pot to a gentle bubble, then reduce to simmer for about 30 minutes.

Steam the rice. (It takes about 45-55 minutes to steam two cups of Japonica rice)

Stir the pork now and then and notice how the aroma becomes more sophisticated. When it's ready, separate the pork from the juice. Slowly stir in the two tablespoons of corn starch into the juice and add the sauteed onions and garlic. Simmer and stir now and then as it thickens into a gravy-like consistency.

Add the rest of that cooking oil to a frying pan, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan, and crank up the heat until a test piece of meat sizzles as soon as it touches the oil....back off the heat a bit and gently add the pork, stirring often, until it is browned. Note that the pork will already be more or less brown from the soy sauce and balsamic vinegar in the marinade. What I mean here is brown as in cooked-meat brown. Take out the pork pieces with tongs (carefully) and drop into a paper towel-lined bowl to absorb the excess oil.

You should have been stirring that brown gravy-sauce during all this, and it should be about ready.

The rest is easy: spoon out some rice, add the chunks of pork, and ladle the sauce over the combination. This is nice with chopped tomatoes, or, for the brave of heart, salsa (which I used here).

I'm not sure what bon apetit is in Tagalog, but ... enjoy!

Autumn Leaves

2009-10-27T09:59:00.003+09:00

A noisy gust of wind passed through the neighborhood a few minutes ago, reminding me that autumn is here and getting serious about it. The leaves are beautiful, but they are falling fast, which is what I understand they tend to do at this time of year.
A couple of nights ago, I watched the ducks swimming in circles on the river. When they do that, a change in the weather is imminent, according to those Old Farmer's Almanac prognosticators.
Here, at least, many of the ducks and geese who graze on the grass in the park nearby are in no hurry to fly south, because they have it good here. And whatever else happens around Halloween (The season actually started Oct. 5 this year.), geese seem to know that this is not a good time to be flying very close to shotgun range.
Other critters are targets at this time of the year, too, including deer and elk, bighorn sheep, bears and wolves. So it's a good time to stay indoors and drink eggnog.
One auto dealership in the Boise area is promoting a "Buy a truck, get a gun" sales offer. The purchase of a pickup or larger truck from this dealer entitles the buyer to a new rifle, shotgun or, as the ad puts it, "Whatever else you can dream up." The radio spot also seems to tie this together with the notion that buying a truck and getting a gun have something to do with "our American heritage." I know the right to bear arms (meaning have guns) is guaranteed in the Constitution for members of a militia, and that has been accepted by the Supreme Court to mean "anybody." But I am not sure that the right to own a pickup truck is similarly assured.
Speaking of geese (nice segue), I notice that the more or less permanent-resident geese in the park like exercise. I say this because they arrive early for grass-grazing around the lake, flying in over my apartment, then touch down on the river, swim to shore, then struggle up the embankment and waddle across the grass and the Green Belt and street pavement to get to their favorite meal venue. Since there is a big lake right there, I wonder why they don't simply fly over to the lake, touch down there and start eating much sooner.
So, we may have hit upon two notions about waterfowl at this time of the year. One is that ducks swim in circles because they are forecasting a change in the weather. The other is that gees are silly.

Chillin'

2009-10-11T09:11:00.003+09:00

I'm getting acclimated to Boise, which is a fair accomplishment, considering I was in the moderate and damp climate of Tokyo for the past 32 years and am now high and dry here. So cold is not as awful where I am now as it was when I was where I was. Even so, as nighttime temperatures range in the 30s, it is a good time for soups and chili and stews to ward off the different form of cold.
Today is chicken-vegetable soup, which is another way of saying "cleaning out the fridge soup." I found a packet of three decent chicken thighs with the skin and bones still there, hiding in the freezer, put them in a big pot with a nicely chopped medium onion, three cloves of garlic, two carrots, two sticks of de-veined celery, a chopped fistfull or two of green beans, a tomato, a half-dozen sliced white mushrooms, and six golf ball-sized redskin potatoes and covered with water, added about a teaspoon of salt and a mortar-ground blend of black, white, rose, green and Jamaica peppercorns, one each of chicken and vegetable boullion, and a finely chopped fistfull of herbs (basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, and chives) and a little more dried Italian parsley, a dash of chili powder, and three chopped green onions. It's a good idea to allow at least a couple of hours for this. First vover the pot and bring the combination to a bubble, then reduce the heat to a low simmer. Stir once in awhile, until the chicken kinda gives up and sheds the skin. Drain off any ugly brownish bubbles. Pause a moment to remove the chicken, remove the skin, bones and gristle and shred the chicken meat, returning it to the pot with the veggies. Add one 5.5-ounce can of V-8 juice, unless you have a good reason not to, and stir the ingredients again, cover the pot and let it simmer again for an hour, stirring now and then.
By this time, no doubt, you will have had at least one glass of wine and should be rooting around for a baguette or some other nice crusty bread to soak up all the delicious flavor melange you are creating. Resist the temptation to ladle the soup out for at least 90 minutes, and longer if possible, because all those flavors are getting to know each other better, and you will reap the benefits.
Stay warm, and bone appetit!

Chef's Delight

2009-08-29T06:45:00.004+09:00

You may notice I'm wearing my other, slightly more serious chef's hat here, because I actually wrote down the recipe rather than just wave the finished dish around. This is an actual chicken-walnut-broccoli salad I made for my sister and her husband, who are throwing a party tonight. I hope I've made enough for at least 10 people, but a lot depends upon how many people eat how much.
The basic ingredients are: 6 boned, skinless chicken breasts
2 heads of Calabrese broccoli
1 clove of garlic
3 stalks of celery
5-6 stalks fresh cilantro
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 6-ounce can black olives
1 whole red bell pepper
1 cup chopped walnuts
3 lemons
1 bottle cheap (under $5 if possible) white wine.
Riesling works nicely.

6 Tbsp mayonnaise (NOT salad dressing!)
3 Tbsp mustard (brown is best)
1 Tbsp raw (unrefined) sugar
2 Tbsp pickle juice
Other stuff that helps jazz it up: 1 Tbsp rosemary (whole)
1 Tbsp lavender
1 tsp. dill weed
1/2 tsp Chipolte smoked pepper
1 Tbsp crumbled blue cheese

The prep: Rinse and blot chicken breasts with paper towel. Place in a large stainless bowl.
Rinse and grate the peel of 3 lemons. Slice lemons thinly and place slices under and over the chicken breasts, sprinkling the zest over the chicken. Peel and finely chop 1 clove of garlic (depending on your love of garlic) and sprinkle over and under the chicken. Pour in 1 bottle of white wine. Massage the chicken in the wine/lemon/garlic mixture. Note that 1 bottle of wine may not be enough to cover the chicken, so you may need to open a second bottle and nurse the leftover while doing the rest of the preparation. Let the chicken marinate in the wine/lemon/garlic mixture for at least an hour.
Place the chicken and liquid mixture in a large pot, cover, and bring to a boil over medium heat, reducing to simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken meat is white all the way through. Drain the broth and chop the chicken into chunks. Place the chicken in a large bowl and set aside to cool.
Strip the stringy stuff from the celery, chop and add to the chicken. Thinly slice and chop the red bell pepper and add to the chicken. Finely chop the green onion and add to the chicken. Finely chop the cilantro and add to the chicken. Drain and chop the black olives and add to the chicken. Sprinkle the crumbled walnuts over the chicken. Blend all the ingredients well.
Chop the broccoli into small florettes. Add some of the stalk, which should be thin sliced and chopped first. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and add the broccoli. When the water returns to a boil, remove from heat, drain well, and cover with ice cubes, turning once in awhile to cool the broccoli evenly and quickly. Add the broccoli to the chicken-walnut combination and blend well.
In a separate bowl, mix the mayonnaise, mustard, sugar and pickle juice. A little horseradish can be added for extra zest. Blend in the crumbled blue cheese and mix well. Add more mustard or pickle juice to balance the taste. Pour the dressing mixture slowly over the chicken-vegetable mixture and blend a little at a time for even coverage. Grind the rosemary and lavender in a mortar and sprinkle over the mixture, blend well.
Cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight.
Before serving, sprinkle a little paprika or smoked paprika over the salad mixture for added color. This is a great summertime main dish with crusty French bread or garlic toast and, of course, more white wine, preferably a little more expensive than what was used to marinate the chicken.
Sidelights: Chicken is a great all-purpose source of protein, low in cholesterol and all that other healthy stuff. Broccoli is an excellent source of essential minerals and vitamins, and an effective cancer-inhibiting agent that has been found to help men reduce the risk of colon cancer.
The walnuts are another healthy element of this salad. Nuts in general, and walnuts in particular, help reduce cholesterol and complement the benefits of the broccoli. The salad overall has an appealing combination of appearance, taste, texture, and health benefits that is hard to beat.

On the Trail

2009-08-24T10:01:00.003+09:00

Since I've been in Boise, I have spent considerable time watching people float down the river, whooping and having a fine ol' time. I have only done it once so far, but of course I am going again. But I have been working on the logistics, checking out the take-out point, which is about a mile and a quarter downstream from my abode. And today, I finally found how to get to the entry point, which is at Barber Park, in the southeast part of the city.
The trip To Barber Park by bike is not so bad, as long as you keep a lookout for low-flying golf balls and don't get distracted by Ed the Elk. (Ed wasn't there today. The cows were on some kind of sit-down strike in the pasture, possibly anticipating a thunderstorm, but Ed was probably still up in the foothills.) i found a crossing past construction on what will be a new wetland area and park (Boise is really impressive for the many parks that are named after wives of prominent Boise citizens. Those husbands must have loved them very much indeed to invest in such classy real estate as parkland!). There it is, just across the bridge.
Finding the bike path back is not quite so easy, mostly because the sole map that shows the river rafting route and associated hiking and bike trails has been faded into monochrome. But by using the Braille method, I found a bike path that follows a fenceline past the backside of a residential area. Because of more construction, part of the path is currently detoured through a new subdivision before coming out near the crossroads at Bown Crossing.

Bown (pronounced bone, as in T-Bone Walker) Crossing was a famous ford across the Boise River along the Oregon Trail, and there is a nice little business district in the wash between the path of the old pioneer trekking route and the river that includes an excellent candy shop that sells not only all the favorite penny candies of my childhood but those of childhoods of people waay older than me.)
Anyway, I made it. And the river rafting plan ultimately is to have a vehicle of my own, so I can enter the river just outside my apartment, float down to the takeout point, deflate the raft and haul it and myself down to Barber Park to the entry point, re-inflate the raft, and float back down to the takeout point at my apartment, deflate the raft again, and go have a shower and a glass of wine.
How does that sound to ya?

Buon appetite!

2009-08-21T13:10:00.002+09:00

When dining with new people, I like to ask this: If you had to survive on the cuisine of one country, which country's food would you choose? It's a thoughtful question. Of course, we would hope to always be in a place where we have a free choice among the countless delightful and delicious foods of the whole world. But, for the sake of conversation, what would it be? French? Well, the French certainly know how to eat and how to enjoy food. We can go on about that in a future Blog. Chinese? Well sure. China is a very big place, and it is really not just one cuisine but many, with specialties of the many regions and ethnic groups that occupy that vast space.
For today though, how about Italian? I love scenes of Italian extended families hauling out the tables and chairs beneath the olive trees and bringing out loads of delicious food, pastas, breads, salads, meats... and the wine!
Yum.
Yesterday, I found a hice pork tenderloin, boneless, hiding in my freezer compartment. And in this heat of high summer, I said, well, sure, why not Italian. So we have an inspiration. This is a dinner featuring the pork tenderloin, beaten into submission with garlic, oregano, parmesan, basil, parsley, thyme, and such, marinated with some red wine, then blotted dry and dredged in panko (Japanese bread crumbs) mixed with more of the same herbs and more parmesan and fried in olive oil. First browned on both sides, then simmered slowly to make sure the pork is thoroughly cooked but still juicy.
The color comes from red, yellow and green bell peppers, cut into strips with two onions and a bud of elephant garlic and some smaller buds of more normal-sized garlic. The garlic is browned separately, drained and set aside to keep crunchy. A half-dozen mushrooms are sliced, sprinkled with pepper and oregano, and sauteed in olive oil, then splashed with red wine. The heat is reduced to allow the wine to cook away, then the mushrooms are also set aside to be added later. I heated a big frypan and added olive oil, then quickly added the peppers and onions, stirring them quickly and thoroughly while adding more red wine. Then the mushrooms. I covered the pan and reduced the heat, allowing the veggies to cook down a bit and absorb the wine.
Meanwhile, in a nearby saucepan, I had water boiling, into which I dropped a fat zuccini donated by my sister. I had sliced it thin so the slices would blanche quickly when they hit the water. I drained the water, added a tablespoon of butter and a couple of hearty shakes of grated parmesan, covered the pan again and shook the pan to cover the zuccini slices with butter and parmesan.
Separately, in yet another pan, water was at a rolling boil. I added a cup of gorgonzola-stuffed ravioli (the technique for that will have to come in another Blog later.) and turned down the heat by half and covered the pot. When the water started bubbling again, I stirred it and gave it about eight minutes, to have the pasta puffy but still al dente!
Serving, you see, includes an herb salad with cucumber and Italian tomato (also out of the garden), and some toasted garlic bread chips, plus what's left of the wine used during cooking. Just before serving, I sprinkled the fried garlic over the peppers. It's not bad. I may be criticized by Italian purists, but I am glad to have contributions of other recipes and advice on how to make it better next time. I am thinking maybe sausage and peppers with a nice tomato sauce...

Another Milestone

2009-08-19T04:40:00.003+09:00

Well, tomorrow I come upon another milestone, or maybe it's millstone, when the odometer registers my 66th birthday. It's a little surprising, what with all I've been through and all that's been through me, to have made it this far. I am hoping for at least the biblical threescore and ten, and the parts that need to work still work quite well.
So I am rummaging around now for the carrot cake recipe, as that is what I plan to bake for myself to mark the event. I remember the last time I actually blogged about a birthday was when I turned 64. Gosh that seems like a long time ago and many events and thousands of miles have intervened since then. But then, and I think it is still clickable here, I offered the Beatles and When I'm 64 as the birthday song.
Maybe one reason I didn't write about being 65 was that I couldn't find a song about being 65. But there is a song about the current number. The prolific singer-composer Botty Troup wrote it in 1946, and it was popularized by Nat King Cole and covered by artists as diverse as Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones and many others.
Route 66 was also a long-running TV show that helped fuel my teenage desire for a Corvette. But the subject of the lyric, of course, is the legendary 2,448-mile-long highway that wound from Chicago to LA, through eight states and three time zones. Stuff like that makes me think it's appropriate as the theme song for this year's birthday party. Join me in the sing-along?

Ocean's Bounty

2009-08-12T10:34:00.010+09:00

OK, I admit Boise is not too near an ocean, and having seafood more than an hour from a sea invites suspicion about the freshness of the catch. Still, I was inspired today to try a seafood salad.
Inspired for several reasons. One, it was in the 90s again today. I had a vague hankering for beef bourguinon after having recently enjoyed the movie "Julie and Julia." You should see the film, because it is good. And if you appreciate food or like to cook even a little, you will find some resonance in the interwoven tales of how Julia Child became a household word in the kitchens of America and how a young lady living above a pizzaria in Queens was influenced by Julia's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," and how it changed her life.
But it was too hot for the beef, and I had already pigged out on my favorite breakfast (bacon and eggs, half a pink grapefruit with honey, yogurt and blueberries and toasted wheat pita washed down with OJ and black coffee). Nope. The beef will wait. After all, Boise is pretty close to beef central, so I don't need to worry about finding good meat here.
Among the thousands of possible alternatives that would be lighter, healthier than the heart-stopping breakfast, and easier to prepare (maybe), I opted for a seafood salad.
Now there are a gazillion possible seafood salads, I know. But I made this one up because I wanted something summer-like and green and crunchy that would go well with a cheap pinot grigio.
The seafood is a combination of frozen baby shrimp, scallops, and a seafood mix that includes octopus, squid, mussels, shrimp and another kind of shelfish that I take to be little-neck clams, but who knows. I have spent the past three decades and change in Japan, where, believe me, the folks know real seafood, and are the world's biggest consumers of it. So they don't mess around with frozen if they can get fresh. And I wouldn't either. But, as I said first-off, I am in Boise, not Tokyo.
So, for safety, I let the various frozen creatures thaw out in some lightly salted water for a half-hour first. I am oookinv cod ons, zo I would say that a cup and a half of the seafood variety of choice, or even all shrimp, all scallop or bits of your favorite seafood--even smoked salmon would be good--will do for one portion.
I made limeade yesterday, with just a little raw sugar, so it really tastes like lime. I mixed a cup of that, a half-cup of cheap white wine, and a fistful of cilantro, and brought it to a boil. I drained the seafood, then dumped it into the limeaid-wine broth and stirred it around until it came to a boil again, then quickly removed it and drained it again, adding a dozen ice cubes to bring the temperature down.
While I was letting the seafood mix soak, I was busy having a glass of that pinot and chopping up some herbs and greens, some snow peas, green onions, garlic, and a fancy-looking purple bell pepper. I also made a sesame-ginger vinagrette as a dressing, using real ginger root and toasted white sesame, ground up with balsamic vinager and just a bit of mirin (sweetened cooking sake) I added some cilantro and peppercorn and some lime peel zest.
Ok. I had a little more of the pinot and decided that a graceful handmade blue bowl I got at the Saturday Market would be the best way to treat myself to the salad.
I made a little bed of the herbs and greens, then added some chopped celery and some garlic and green onion. I sprinkled a little of the sesame-ginger dressing on the greens, then added the drained seafood mix. I dribbled the juice of the leftover lime onto the seafood and added more dressing. I then sprinkled some sliced snow peas, green onion and cilantro, and added the remaining sesame-ginger dressing.
As we speak, I am enjoying it with some black pepper-olive oil triscuits and what little is left of the pinot. I am not too humble to say it is pretty good.
And if you are reading this, you probably already know that I am a serious fan of cooking and enjoying good food and wine. I would like it more if I have someone to enjoy it with. Still...
What Julia Child did to popularize and demystify French cooking, I wish I could help do for cooking that involves ingredients and techniques from other parts of the world. During my time in Tokyo, I had the pleasure of eating and enjoying very good food from many places. Often, I would ask the chefs how they prepared a certain dish, then try to replicate or enhance it at home. This is one of my favorite hobbies and has served me well. So before too much more water passes under the bridge, I want to share some of what I have discovered and enjoyed, and in the process, I hope to demystify and help others appreciate what I have enjoyed and discovered, so you can make it too.
Cooking is a skill, and it can be an art. I prefer approaching it as a way to enjoy something we need every day. So, as Julia would surely say, "Bon appetit!"

P.S. The heart-stopping breakfast pictured above is really not so bad in moderation. Yes, I am aware of the nutritional needs of humans and the modified Food Pyramid. I am also aware of the healthy choices and the importance of food that is pleasant to look at, tasty, and involves the best possible combination of protein, essential vitamins and minerals and all that stuff. So maybe one reason I chose to make seafood salad instead of the beef was to balance out the heavy stuff. Maybe tomorrow, I will be back in the carnivore bracket!

Midsummer Night's Dream

2009-07-20T05:26:00.004+09:00

Temperature was 108 yesterday, and it felt like it while I was out on the bike, wearing me down to the need for another shower and a little lie-down. It was a good idea. I awoke refreshed enough to decide it's time for a little pseudo-California cuisine. Some of my best friends have done time in California, so a little toast to them was in order.
Food o' choice was chicken-broccoli-walnut salad, plus a fresh-herb salad with olives, pickled asparagus and pickled green beans and some five-grain artisan bread. This was accompanied by a bottle of Night Harvest Chardonay, which is basically a supermarket wine, so not expensive, but quite good. Dessert was key lime pie. And yes, I can get key limes here in the High Desert.
To make the salad, cut the florets off a a head (is that what they're called?) of fresh broccoli, blanch them in boiling water for about a minute, drain and let them cool. Thoroughly cook two skinned and boned chicken breasts in a small pan of half water, half white wine, with a little salt. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce to simmer for at least 20 minutes. Drain and cut the chicken into small cubes. You will want about a cup of chopped walnuts. Beyond that, other ingredients are your choice, but I like to include a stalk of celery, half an onion and about three garlic buds, half a red bell pepper, some cilantro, basil, Italian parsley, and lavender (yes, lavender leaves or the seeds that come after the blossoms are done). I also add a tablespoon of finnes herbs, simply to round out the flavor. Combine the chicken, herbs, broccoli and walnuts, and add a dressing mixture made with four tablespoons of real mayo (not salad dressing), a teaspoon of prepared mustard and two teaspoons of brown mustard, a tablespoon of raw (unrefined) sugar, and three tablespoons of the juice from a jar of bread-and-butter pickle sticks. Blend this in a big bowl, cover and allow to chill about a half hour in the fridge.
Key lime pie for summer should use a graham cracker crust, and I make a simple egg white merengue with a dash of vanilla essence and a little (maybe a tablespoon) of powdered sugar, with just a bit of key lime juice and the grated zest off the lime itself.
That was pretty good stuff, and I think my friends would approve. Cheers.

Mojito Time

2009-07-08T09:57:00.003+09:00

Boise was characterized for me as being in the High Desert, with average humidity of 11 percent or less and temperatures in summer ranging from damn hot to hotter than that. So far, though, it has been very pleasant. Temperature has gotten into the low 90s, but, maybe because of the low humidity, it has not felt hot. I am also fortunate to have a solid apartment with good insulation and good air conditioning, which I have used a little bit. Since I am on the second floor, I get the breeze off the river, and big trees and the river itself help, I think.
It is also good to have a mojito now and then. The mint, the lime, the fizzy water and, ahem, the rum, work just fine to make heat tolerable.
I am having one now, sitting on the balcony watching people go by on the river in their rafts, inner tubes, and whatever, listening to the river and the breeze in the trees. Would this be a time to say "It doesn't get any better than this?" I've not been here long enough to know, so I will just appreciate it as it is and try to avoid comparisons. I can say it is a lot better than being stuck in Tokyo during the prolonged rainy season and watching the mildew form on my shoes.
I believe I could use another mojito.

Why I Don't Drive

2009-06-18T08:19:00.002+09:00

One of the nice things about living in a city is that a car is not an absolute necessity. And it is often true that, the bigger the city is, the more likely it is to have decent public transit. Tokyo is a prime example of clean, reliable and not terribly expensive train, subway and bus service. Even Boise, which is not very big as state capitals go, has a decent bus network (no trains or subways), and people with disabilities that limit their ability to get around can call for transport when they need it.
There was a time, not a century ago, when many other U.S. cities had good public transit, and even my little hometown of Marion, Indiana, was joined to other Hoosier cities by a really cool interurban rail network, as well as the Big Four railroads that joined bigger cities like Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis and all points between and beyond.
Gradually, people who preferred the suburbs bought into the Detroit scheme of individual car ownership, buses replaced trolleys and the interurban, trucks replaced railroads. Before long after World War II, there were more cars than people, and we're stuck with that imbalance today.
I've owned cars, and I could appreciate the convenience of being able to go about anywhere, any time. At the same time, convenience comes at a price. Gasoline and alternative fossil fuels are expensive. More environmentally rational ways to power a car may be cheaper, but there is still the cost of insurance, maintenance, finding a parking place, and eventually replacement.
In the half-dozen years I have been on foot, I have come to appreciate being without a car for more reasons than cost, environmental awareness and comfort. I can get exactly where I want to go with a combination of public transportation and footwork. Along the way, I can literally stop and smell the roses, watch the geese fly, the ducks swim and the woodpeckers peck.
There is supposedly health merit in walking or riding a bike, too. I am still overweight, but I feel better, because walking and even "townie" biking (not the Speedo-wearing skinny-tire kind) help improve circulation and lung capacity.
So I can feel better in the sense that without a car, I am doing my little part to use less fossil fuel and thus reduce pollution. And I can feel better just by the act of hoofing it or riding, or even using public transport, because I can enjoy the scenery, take time and regain a kind of balance with the rest of the world--the part that can do without driving. That's pretty cool.

Changes

2009-05-21T02:20:00.003+09:00

It's been a month now since I left Japan, settling in Boise, Idaho, after more than 32 years in Tokyo. To call it reverse culture shock is unfair, but there have sure been a lot of surprises. Today, for example, I wrote my first paper check in God-knows-how-long, to pay my phone bill.
It reminded me of what I thought I would miss about life in Japan and what I thought I might or might not find back in the U.S. So, yes, doing paper payments is a surprise. I had expected to handle it by Internet or card, and, to be fair, most daily purchases, such as supermarket and other retail shopping, is by card, which is cool. But I pay my rent by check. I pay my phone bill by check. Some smaller shops only take checks or cash too.
I was correct in thinking I would miss the washlet. For those of you who don't know, a washlet is a combination of Western-style sit-down toilet and bidet. Push a button and a little nozzle slides out and squirts warm water on the part you want to clean (there are two positions, so ladies are covered for both functions.) The washlet is a Japanese invention (Check the informative Website at http://www.washlet.com/) that has been around since the early 1980s, and one I thought would have surely caught on in the States by now. Indeed, it is widely available, but, alas, not easy to find in use, such as in public toilets or in either of the two bathrooms in my apartment. (As an aside, I also miss the separation of commode and bathing equipment that is common in all but the tiniest Japanese apartments. To be fair, I do have a nice tub for a soak, but still... )
Having lived in Tokyo for so long, with the convenience of predictably reliable commuter train and subway and bus services, I am not impressed with a 20-minute wait for a bus (an hour or more on weekends and holidays), but I get around that by having a commuter bike with saddlebags, so I can do most shopping for daily needs by bicycle. And some government offices are virtually inaccessible by bike, which must be hell for the elderly and disabled.
On the other hand, I am still gobsmacked by the choices available at supermarkets, including the kinds of produce like organic veggies or shiitake or ginger, which I half expected would be hard to find. Here in the high desert of the Northwest, I am not sure how much to expect in the way of fresh seafood, but there is at least one market that has fish flown in daily, and I had pretty good sashimi at one of the Japanese restaurants in central Boise so far, which is a positive thing.
I have also been able to keep up my Japanese language at least in casual conversation with people I've met around town (Japanese people).
So far, so good.

Higher!

2009-05-12T02:10:00.003+09:00

Life is different at 2,200 feet than it was at 138 feet. I say this from my new perch in Boise (a river runs through it), after having spent/squandered 32 years of the past 65 in Tokyo. If you had asked me a year ago, or even six months ago, where I would be now, Boise would not have come to mind. Nevertheless, here I am, and it is pretty good. I am gradually settling in at a nice place along the Green Belt, which is the biking/hiking trail that follows the river, and I am just a short walk from a good sports bar with a microbrewery.
I am biking now, since there are no trains and bus service runs every 20 minutes or less. Even so, the Co-op wine store is within biking distance, and they give a special discount to people who go there by bike. Add to that the fact that my bike is equipped with saddlebags that can hold six bottles on each side and I am in good shape.
The balcony is already in bloom with miniature roses and lavender, and the basil and tomatoes are peeking up while other herbs are still waiting to be sure spring has truly arrived.
So life is good, despite adversity and a crap economy that includes unemployment in the 7 percent range for the second straight month. Being thrifty is easier here than in Tokyo. Instead of paying people to take my furniture and appliances, the appliances here, including washer, dryer, fridge, garbage disposal and dish washer, are all part of the rent, and I could furnish the place with very nice second-hand items, including a huge oak, roll-top desk, for very little money (thankfully).
I don't have all the goodies for daily life yet, as my pots and pans are still somewhere between here and Tokyo. But we're getting oriented--or is it occidented?

Fallaces sunt rerum species

2009-04-09T19:33:00.003+09:00

Ah Spring! The season of change is indeed upon us big time. This week--the first one in April -- is as nice as anyone could want. Sunny and mild by day, a full moon in a clear sky by night. The cherry blossoms are blossoming. It's all good. So I notice it is time to do spring cleaning, and in the process, I have so far found some hideous ties that have to go, as well as four good suits that, alas, are waaay to small... or rather I am waaay too big for four good suits.
The season also reminds that it is a good idea to get out, not only to enjoy the weather and the blossoms, but to shed some of that extra girth. This is not a fitness campaign, but a reality check. I was thinking of making pasta for supper, because that and a nice salad and a lot of walking are supposed to be a good combination. Let's see what happens.

Chuka Guy

2009-02-11T20:50:00.002+09:00

This is now officially the Year of the Ox, and the moon is still large and nearly full. Last Sunday was the final parade of the festive period at Yokohama's Chinatown, and it was fun, even though there were way to many people.
My fortune for the year, according to the luck of the draw in terms of numbered sticks, is not particularly bright. I'm supposed to avoid taking chances. Ha! Not much chance of that.
This, I think is the year of change. Time for something different enough to make a break from the past. It's been fun and all that, and there are still some things to see and do and new places to go here. But after that, it's time to move forward, see new places and do new things.
Here I go!

Headlines and Deadlines

2009-01-14T11:39:00.002+09:00

It's funny how the mind works. Here we are in Japan, with companies laying off people by the thousands in the midst of the latest recession, and the Japanese government comes out with a statement to the effect that they've created 150 jobs. ``Stop the presses,'' a colleague said, pointing up the fact that 150 new jobs against thousands of non-jobs is hardly an exciting bit of news. And of course we are no longer in a ``stop the presses'' environment, being a 24/7 news operation that puts up headlines and stories whenever the need arises.
Still, I have been at this long enough to remember when that phrase was actually used, and I got to shout it once at my hometown newspaper, The Chronicle-Tribune, in Marion, Indiana. Without resorting to Google, I was able to recall much of the detail of that Saturday night of Oct. 31, 1963, when a propane gas cylinder blew up at a concession stand at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum during the opening night of a Holiday on Ice performance. It happened just as we were putting the Sunday paper to bed.
The tragedy, in which 74 people eventually died of burns and other injuries, still stands as one of the worst in the state's history. Our newsroom was a little more than 60 miles northeast of Indianapolis, but Bob Daugherty, our ace photographer, made it there in his Thunderbird in much less than that and got some stunning photos of the scene. We were able to get some of his pictures and a first-person account of the carnage (bodies of the victims were laid out on sheets of plywood on the ice as a makeshift morgue) into the morning edition.
I don't think I ever heard anyone say ``stop the presses'' in all my other newspaper years after that, and I do recall that the guys in the pressroom were not quite sure what to make of it when I did it on that night, but it worked, and it was the right thing to do. I'm glad I could hold onto the memory.

Happy Moooo Year 2009

2009-01-01T15:04:00.003+09:00

When the Lunar New Year comes around later this month, it will be the Year of the Ox. So the decoration on the table this New Year's Day includes the official Starbucks Bear, disguised as a cow. I took him to the flower shop and got good help matching flowers for the occasion. The eve was solo, so pretty uneventful. The Red and White Show was as awful as ever, and I managed to stay awake long enough to wish Happy New Year to some people. To those I did not reach, Happy New Year to you, too!

Candle Night Update

2008-12-26T21:48:00.004+09:00

Candle Night is an increasingly popular opportunity for people to get together, turn off the electrical appliances and see things in a different light -- candlelight. So I did that on the eve of the Winter Solstice, conveniently near Christmas that it could also be a chance to have stollen and cookies and party-like food and wine and give people little gifts, as well as an opportunity to have a break from hectic Tokyo life.
I got nice gifts too, and wine and big, sweet strawberries and most of a handmade gateau chocola dusted with powdered sugar and lit by little Santa and snowman candles. We agreed that a dozen people is pretty much the maximum number of people who can occupy the place at one time, especially during a feeding frenzy when everyone is holding a lighted candle. But a pleasant time was had by all. I recommend that.

Holiday Mood

2008-12-04T20:40:00.009+09:00

Yes, it is gradually beginning to look a lot like Christmas. No snow in Tokyo, although it is snowing waay south of us in Fukuoka, for instance, and up north in the ski areas, which must make those folks happy.
At least I have the tree up, and some additional Christmas-ish decorations, and I threw a little party with the basic Thanksgiving menu:
Roast turkey and my secret oyster-liver stuffing
baked ham with honey-mustard glaze
mashed garlic potatoes
orange-cinnamon yams
almond green beans
deviled eggs, pickled beets
cranberry-walnut-orange Jell-O with mini marshmallows
raspberry-strawberry salad
pumpkin pie
graham cracker-custard pie with merengue
apple spice-walnut-date cake
egg nog ice cream (with rum instead of bourbon)
And the early arrival guests helped me bake the chocolate chip-pecan cookies.
If you are in the neighborhood, we will be observing Candle Night. It is supposed to be on Dec. 21 this time, to mark the winter solstice, but so many people have to work, including me, so it will be a day early to allow for rest time. Since Japan does not treat Christmas as a holiday (The nearest holiday is Dec. 23, the emperor's birthday), we have to make do with what we've got, right?

Fish Quiche

2008-11-23T11:32:00.002+09:00

OK, I have caved in. I thought I could hold out until Thanksgiving to dig out the Christmas decorations, and I guess technically I am, because today is Labor Thanksgiving in Japan, which is about as close as Japan gets to expressing a feeling about something by a holiday.
So I am getting into to cold-weather food mode. The picture is of a spinach-salmon quiche. It is salmon season here, so I could find fairly cheap salmon fillets (watching out for the bones, of course), and spinach is in season, so I could get a bunch (meaning an armful for next to nothing. Probably the cheese was the biggest expense.
I cheated on the pie crust by using a mix, but it's really not hard to make a simple crust either way (the long way is flour, a pinch of salt, shortening and a bit of ice water. Prebake the crust. That only takes about 10 minutes at 350F (160C).
When I make a quiche, I use a block of cheese. Any kind works, depending on the flavor you want. I used Gouda this time, shredding a generous cupful.
Poach the salmon in a little white wine. This is to separate skin and bones from the edible part more easily. I then flake the meat, let it cool and stir in with the shredded cheese. I am not sure how much spinach was involved in its raw state, but I rinsed it, put it in a container and microwaved it at 900W for 50 seconds. This, I am told, helps keep up to 90 percent of the vitamins. Blanching (basically dumping boiling water over it) retains about 70 percent, while boiling the spinach leaves only about 30 percent of the vitamins.
Anyway, I wound up with enough spinach that, wheen squeezed and chopped, it yielded about a cup. I added fresh basil, Italian parsley, rosemary, chervil, oregano, thyme, whole rose peppercorns, ground black pepper, a dash of nutmet and stirred all that together with the spinach, cheese and salmon.
Separately, I beat four eggs into a frenzy, added a cup and a half of fresh cream (don't use fake cream. Quiche is not about counting calories). Beat that again so it is a bit thick. A blender can deal with this nicely, but beating by hand, although tiring, lets you see the consistency best.
Stir the egg-cream mixture into the spinach/fish/herb stuff, then spread it over the baked pie shell. Sprinkle a little paprika over the top to add color. Bake at 375F (180F) for about 30 minutes.
It's pretty good stuff and good any time, for example with a salad and a little Chardonay as a simple supper, or warmed over at breakfast (if there is any left).
I had mine for brunch with more coffee while digging out the Christmas decorations. And what I consider Thanksgiving is still a few days away. Can I hold off until then? Stay tuned.

Season Change

2008-11-03T21:12:00.004+09:00

The cicadas didn't try so hard this year, and very quickly their chatter was overtaken by the crickets, and now, even though it is not really cold in Tokyo, the ducks and various seabirds are practicing takeoffs and landings in the river outside my window, preparing for their journey to presumably warmer places.
The menu, which is probably more a part of my life now than it was even a few years ago, is also more attuned to cool weather. We had a Halloween fest with chili and polo loco, for example, and this weekend -- this post is being posted on Culture Day -- was different kinds of comfort food. Yesterday was German--roast pork and onions and potatoes, beets and red cabbage kraut, white asparagus (out of season here, but it must be Spring in Chile, where this came from) and a nice 2007 Riesling. Today was three kinds of curry -- mutton, spinach and chicken keema -- with nan and kashmiri rice (saffron, cloves and raisins jazz it up a bit), with lassi and a coconut milk-tapioca-cinnamon concoction after to help put out the fire. This feels like a good night for hot chocolate with little bitty marshmallows. No fireplace here, but that would be a nice touch. It's not cold enough to turn on the heaters yet, but it is definitely good sleeping weather with an extra blanket. Six o clock comes awfully early in the morning!

Semi-Holiday Season

2008-10-07T12:38:00.004+09:00

It's Halloween time again, almost, which means Christmas can't be far behind, almost.
Seriously, I used to explain Halloween to Japanese friends as something like Obon or the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts, in which people show respect for elders and departed relatives by visiting their graves or welcoming the spirits with lanterns and symbolic settings of food from the recent harvest.
Times have changed.
Now, Halloween here is pretty much the same as in the U.S., with costumes and Jack-o-Lanterns, but not quite up to the trick-or-treat practice yet, although I expect that will change too before long.
Of course I remember when the start of the school year was pretty much timed to the World Series, and we pegged Thanksgiving with football season. And hockey was not even recognized south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Well, times change, of course, and customs change too. So we have the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and a baseball season that pretty much melds into basketball season without even a football season break for spring training.
And Trick-or-Treat, not Thanksgiving, heralds the start of the Christmas shopping season. Yep. Tokyo stores put up the Christmas stuff about the same time they take down the pumpkins. Both are borrowed customs used as merchandising ploys. Maybe global warming has something to do with it?

..and now, the weather

2008-09-29T12:12:00.002+09:00

You may remember the disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow, in which a climatologist tries to convince politicians to prepare for catastrophic global weather. Of course they don't listen soon enough, and Los Angeles gets sucked up in hurricanes, most of the New York Public Library goes up in smoke, and the northern hemisphere is pretty much engulfed in a new ice age.
Well, Japan, where I sit, is on the leading edge of f=the 15th typhoon of the season. The Accuweather satellite image above doesn't show the eye formation of this typhoon, but more recent images on the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center site show that Jangmi is a biggie, with wind gusting above 120 miles an hour and waves 20 or more feet high as it makes a sharp right and heads for Japan's bigger islands tomorrow or...ahem....the day after.
Having lived here awhile, I have experienced typhoons that, fortunately, have not been deadly in my personal neighborhood. Apart from downpour rain and wind gusts that leave umbrella skeletons all over, we've been fortunate. But a storm this big and this powerful is a reminder of what the forces of nature can do when messed with by the forces of people.
I'm always a little surprised that people who have survived a disastrous storm like Hurricane Katrina will try to go surfing in such weather, or go out to the shoreline and have some drinks while the storm rages. It's a quirky thing about humans that having survived one calamity makes us bolder in the face of others.
Maybe I am going soft in old age, but I think it is better to keep your head down and, when someone with more weather expertise than me says be careful, I am careful.

Back to Reality

2008-08-31T23:16:00.003+09:00

Since I am not a serious TV fan, I have so far avoided "reality television," but I recently returned to earth from a pleasant but busy vacation -- the first in at least six years. During that time, I saw my daughter off to college, turned 65, and made at least a couple of life-changing decisions.
The life-changing decisions, like life itself, will come to pass in their own good time, but you could count the time on one hand, if you are keeping track.
Meanwhile, I want to hold on to what's left of that vacation mood as long as possible. I made a wish, blew out the candle, and have already started making these things happen. I hope you have something like that going too.

The Journey So Far

2008-08-16T15:06:00.002+09:00

Life is a journey, not a destination, according to many people who have gone this route before. I agree, because there are plenty of things to be learned, and the process of discovery is always a kick, no matter where we are. I know that ultimately, we alone are responsible for what happens, but it is nice to share the trip with someone, and I've finally found my traveling companion. She is the lady who agrees that we shouldn't be afraid to take risks and to not race through life so fast that I forget where I've been or where I'm going.
So the approach of 65 doesn't deter me at all. I can see more clearly, with this helpful advice: Do not give up while you still have something to give. Do not shut the door on love by saying it is impossible to find. Do not give up your dreams.
Sounds like words to live by. Like Edgar A. Guest's ''My Creed,''
My Creed
To live as gently as I can;
To be, no matter where, a man;
To take what comes of good or ill,
And cling to faith and honor still;
To do my best, and let that stand
The record of my brain and hand;
And then, should failure come to me,
Still work and hope for victory.
To have no secret place wherein
I stoop unseen to shame or sin;
To be the same when I'm alone
As when my every deed is known;
To live undaunted, unafraid
Of any step that I have made;
To be without pretense or sham
Exactly what men think I am.

To leave some simple work behind
To keep my having lived in mind;
If enmity to aught I show,
To be an honest, generous foe;
To play my little part, nor whine
That greater honors are not mine.
This I believe is all I need
For my philosophy and creed.

Cheers.

Summer Food

2008-07-08T13:12:00.002+09:00

Summer brings out a craving for barbecue, which can still be good, even when you're up on the sixth floor and nowhere near a charcoal pit. I faked it for the Independence Day gathering simply by marinating the chicken and the pork spareribs overnight in garlic, lemon juice and beer. The sauce is a combination of things but includes brown sugar to give a little glaze as the meat cooks, plus a smoky-flavored sake vinegar I found. Another preparation technique here is corn on the cob, cooked in milk. It brings out the sweetness, and provides a flavor hit for people who like butter but don't really want the cholesterol that goes with it. We are supposedly going through a butter shortage in Japan now, too, so the absence of butter is a reminder of how cooks learn to improvise.
If you look closely at the salad, you could see it is all herbal, plus seafood, marinated overnight also in white wine, garlic, oregano, basil and different kinds of pepper, plus a little olive oil. The salad also has black olives, roasted garlic, tomatoes, red bell pepper, shiso leaves and two kinds of edible flowers.
Desserts are pumpkin pie, as in the Thanksgiving kind, and a red-white-and-blue fruit pie that is simply raspberries, blueberries and mini marshmallows in whipped cream, poured into a baked pie shell and refrigerated. It was a relatively uncomplicated menu, and what with doggy bags, no worries about leftovers.

Death of a Terrorist

2008-06-18T12:27:00.003+09:00

The United Nations General Assembly decided late last year that the death penalty ``undermines human dignity.'' Duh! Of course in a perfect world, justice would be certain that people convicted of capital crimes are truly guilty of them. Because murder and rape also undermine human dignity, and the United Nations General Assembly has managed to look the other way far too many times in cases of the most fundamental abuses of human dignity imaginable. Let's put genocide on the list, for example.
Well-intentioned opponents of the death penalty often have not sat face-to-face, as I have, with convicted murderers condemned to die and asked them why they did what got them into that situation. I hope those folks, and others not so sure about the issue one way or another, will get a chance to know more about what they are against before being so set against it.
Japan, China, the U.S. and about 50 other countries have a death penalty for capital crimes. The United Nations notion on seeking a moratorium on executions is that there is no evidence that executing criminals has any deterrent value to dissuade others from similarly heinous crimes. Maybe so.
It is also arguably true that not all the people who kill each other do so with cold-blooded, malicious intent. Humans are very complex people. Murder in a fit of rage or passion is still murder, though, and if a person comes unhinged in a moment of rage or passion once, how can we know that won't happen again?
So, for better or worse, the death penalty removes from society some people with murderous intent (and the proven ability to exercise it).
The reason more people are not executed for killing other people is often that they repent, clearly understanding the enormity of what they've done, and their punishment is knowing in their hearts that they have done something terrible to another human being, often wrecking the lives of others in the process. That's a heavy weight to carry. Execution at least has a certain finality to it.
I do not like the idea of people killing other people under any circumstances. I wish people would be nicer to each other. I am among those who used to believe that the death penalty was wrong and useless too, and as a young reporter covering murder trials, I often felt that people found guilty of crimes that called for the death penalty might not have been guilty -- the old ``reasonable doubt'' concept.
Once in awhile, however, and increasingly as I get older and perhaps more cynical and tired of the crap that slick lawyers pull in criminal trials and the stupidity of their colleagues who sit in judgment of capital crime cases, I realize that the death penalty is not only not a bad idea, but actually well-deserved in many cases.
One such case was settled yesterday with the execution in Japan (Japan hangs people) of a pervert named Tsutomu Miyazaki. He was hanged for the abduction and murder of four girls between the ages of 4 and 7 between August 1988 and June 1989. His case dragged on for years as lawyers sought to prove Miyazaki was mentally unfit to understand his criminal responsibility.
Miyazaki was a loner and a misfit who lived in a two-room outbuilding he shared with his younger sister, apart from his family's house. He had stacks and stacks of porn video tapes. He had a moderate physical disability in that his arms were somewhat shorter than would be normal for a person of his build, and that might have made him unattractive to women or maybe unable to masturbate or something. For whatever reason, he seduced little girls, got them into his car and drove them down country roads where he stripped them, used them for sex, then killed them. He hacked up the body of at least one little girl, burned the pieces and buried her bones in the garden.
Miyazaki was not a nice man. He deserved to die. I am only sorry it took so long, and that he didn't have the benefit of fear, rape, torture and dismemberment before the noose.
Japan's death penalty comes under criticism for the way it is carried out, too. Amnesty International doesn't like the idea that the people on death row don't know when they will hang, and relatives and other interested parties don't know either until a notice is posted on the prison bulletin board the day of the event. These notices are monitored by a committee of lawyers who oppose the death penalty, as they exercise Japan's judicial appeal process. So in the case of the Miyazaki execution, the public found out about it and two other executions the same day. The little kids he killed did not have any chance to psychologically prepare themselves for death. They were too young to understand what was going on anyway, so even if he had told them his intentions, they probably would not have understood. Miyazaki did have the advantage of knowing he would hang, and lacked only the certainty of when. So he died without the element of terrorism he inflicted upon his victims.
And make no mistake about it, to a murder victim, there is nothing more terrifying than realizing you are going to die. A person being hanged has a few seconds to twitch in agony, but there is no evidence that this does anything toward helping him realize the enormity of his crime.
If you haven't formed an opinion on the issue, I'll let Amnesty International express its views, in fairness. Their Web site discusses their position here: http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-priorities/death-penalty/page.do?id=1011005&n1=3&n2=28
Since this is MY blog, however, I would say again that, although the death penalty is undeniably a denial of the killer's human rights, it is no more or less complete than the denial of human rights of the murder victim.

Loners, Losers, Killers

2008-06-13T12:36:00.004+09:00

It would be nice if Japanese people and people who are seriously fond of Japan would be more realistic in their appraisals. These folks have good intentions, I'm sure, but they tend to give a misimpression of Japan, when in fact it is a country populated by all kinds of people. Most are good, honest, law-abiding, basically nice, or at least not-so-bad folks. Some, however, are not (as is true of any other country I know of, which is why I am posting this bleat).
One of the not-nice people got lose recently in the shopping district of Akihabara, long known for its consumer electronics stores, and more recently for its Akiba Maid-san bars and similar cosplay outlets. Anyway, Akihabara has cleaned up in the past few years, with a nicer railway station area and access, somewhat better choices of places to eat, and other pleasantness, making it one of the major must-see stops for anyone passing through Japan, as well as all the Otaku who are regular clients.
Since this involves a criminal case still under investigation, I won't get into the detail too much, beyond pointing out that a 25-year-old part-time factory worker, feeling alienated and lonely and generally put-upon by society, decided to screw with the Wa by driving a truck into a crowd of Sunday strollers (the streets of Akihabara are blocked off on Sundays so people can walk about more easily), killing seven people and generally scaring the hell out of people.
The killer continued his spree by randomly slashing and stabbing people with knives, mostly attacking them from behind.
Police say the killer posted messages with his mobile phone, warning of his intentions and expressing his rage. Unfortunately, nobody picked up on these warnings until after the fact.
Gun-control advocates often point to Japan as a model of a safe society because of its strict controls on handguns and rigorous investigation of those who seek permits for hunting rifles and target pistols.
In reality, however, since handguns are generally maintained mostly by police and yakuza gangsters, the rest of society resorts to whatever else it can find to use as a weapon. This makes baseball bats, cutlery and umbrellas murder weapons. While the murder rate per capita in Japan is about 1.1 per 100,000 people compared with 8.7 per 100,000 in the U.S. (These are 20-year old numbers, but the ratio hasn't changed much), the deaths are more dramatic because they occur in a society that has been led to believe is safe.
Whatever you choose to believe about homogeneity and safety of the society and the law-abiding nature of people, I'd recommend keeping an eye out anyway, just in case.

(Learn more about Japan's crime rate from the government's official statistical database: http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/nenkan/1431-25.htm

Bye Bo

2008-06-03T15:41:00.003+09:00

I saw him twice in concert. Saw his band's candyapple red 1950 Cadillac hearse (Bo Diddley and the B.O. Trio in gold script on the sides). Saw him at the Chess-Checker-Argo studios in Chicago when he barged in on a Chuck Berry recording session and jammed with him. Shonuf Bo Diddley's shave-and-a-hair-cut-two-bits beat influenced a lot of guitar players you will never hear or hear of, including me, as well as legends like Buddy Holly, the Rolling Stones, The Who... heck, even George Michael!
Rolling Stone magazine called his signature chugging on that custom Gretch cigar box ``The most plagiarized rhythm of the 20th century.''

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F1Mk6U5zVY
However much he was troubled by the ripoffs and lack of respect or royalties he got in his lifetime, Bo Diddley's musical influence is undeniable. Maybe it was not a surprise that he died yesterday at the age of 79. but I'm sorry he's gone.

Food for Thought

2008-05-02T11:10:00.002+09:00

(DISCLAIMER: My profile says I enjoy cooking, which is true. Some people doubt that or think it's strange. And to those people, I say ``Pish-tosh,'' or some other phrase that rhymes with ``duck shoe.'' In fact, I do enjoy cooking, and some other people enjoy my cooking too. So I am building a cookbook for my daughter that has some of the basic things people should know for survival cooking. I'll post a few entries here now and then.)

Roux-tine sauces begin with a base that is equal parts flour and oil or (arteries groan in protest) butter. The simplest would be a cup of all-purpose flour and a cup of vegetable oil. A heavy iron skillet is best for making roux (or for making anything that involves frying, I think.) Heat the oil and gradually add the flour, stirring constantly until the mixture turns brown and is a smooth texture. This may take about 20 minutes. Remove from heat. The trick is to brown the roux, but don't burn it, or it becomes too bitter to use.
Moving on from there, a more time-consuming roux is made with butter and an equal portion of mashed cooked carrot. Again, blend the butter and mashed carrot until brown.
Ethnic stuff? Sure. Indian curry roux starts with finely chopped onions, cooked with oil until smooth. This can take a lot of time, so a good curry base is usually made at least a day ahead. The same thing works with other ingredients, such as coconut powder and oil for Thai curry roux.
My cooking philosophy is that it is good to know how to make things from scratch. But in the interest of time and convenience (and available equipment), there's no need to spend all day preparing sauce bases by churning your own butter or grinding grain into flour and so on. Simple and delicious sauce bases can be made with canned or packaged soups and favorite herbs and spices. The beef stroganoff in the picture above is made with a basic flour-and-oil roux, to which I added beef and vegetable bouillon cubes, rosemary, thyme and pepper, and boiled down gradually adding milk. I sauté-ed an onion--chopped fine--and some garlic with sliced brown mushrooms, added thin-sliced beef sirloin, then blended it all with a splash of red wine and a tablespoon of sour cream and let it simmer for a half-hour.
Egg noodles? Sure, you can make them easily with 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, two beaten eggs or the beaten yolks (only) of three eggs, a half-cup of milk and a tablespoon of butter. Mix it together with a pinch of salt and knead into a ball, roll thin on a floured surface and cut into strips. Let the strips dry at least three or four hours in open air.
Or you can buy a package of egg noodles and be ready for business in about 10 minutes!
Mango treats.
Ok, now if I say cream puffs and ice cream, you start thinking about calories and all that. True, but a mango (the Mexican ones are my favorite) is a great source of dietary fiber (helps you poop) and protein, plus other minerals and vitamins and foliate, which is an important acid for pregnant women (not that you need to be pregnant to eat mangos). So the dessert trio of choice is a cream puff filled with mango custard, served with a scoop of mango ice cream drizzled with a mango sauce, and slices of fresh mango with shredded coconut and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
Join me?
Learn more about the food values of fruits here: http://www.healthalternatives2000.com/fruit-nutrition-chart.html

The March Hare Meets The Easter Bunny

2008-03-11T10:32:00.002+09:00

Once upon a time--say 200 A.D.--Saxons celebrated a spring fertility ritual to honor the goddess Ostara, whose signature animal was the hare. We know, from Alice in Wonderland, that the March Hare is an unpredictable animal with a voice like Jerry Colona, so we shouldn't be surprised the March Hare would, at this time of the year (March) get confused in the minds of some people (Pagans, maybe) with the Easter Bunny.
People ask: If the Easter Bunny brings brightly colored eggs, what does the Easter Chicken bring? (batteries for the bunny)
Anyway, we mark Easter as a Christian holiday to honor the resurrection of Jesus. This year, the observance is on March 23, just a few days after the first day of Spring. From the proximity of the two, we can see how the early Christians could capitalize upon the prevailing Pagan practices and turn them into Christian practices. So we have the Easter Bunny. We also got the egg idea from even older Vernal festivals, in which the Romans and Greeks used eggs as symbols of fertility, rebirth and abundance (naturally). Eggs were all over the place in those days, because spring and fertility are naturally linked. The hare--be it the March Hare or the Easter Bunny, is often associated with moon goddesses (In Japan, the moon shows a bunny pounding rice into mochi.), so the egg and the rabbit are often pictured together in that context.
It seems fair to Pagans, Christians and basically anyone anticipating the arrival of spring to take this time to enjoy the changing of the season and a chance to see the world in a fresh light. I'll take my Easter Eggs over easy please.

(Learn more about Easter traditions here: http://wilstar.com/holidays/easter.htm

Spams and Scams

2008-02-26T11:38:00.002+09:00

I imagine you get these little messages as often as I do: bulk forwardings of homilies and inspirational messages, good-luck charms, ``thinking of you'' and so on. They are usually from well-meaning people on your e-mail list somewhere, and they are a lot less intrusive or potentially virus-laden than most of the other spam that clutters all our in-boxes.
I trash it anyway. Not because I am a Scrooge-like person, but because I stand with brave souls like John Ratliff and others who would like to reduce the amount of unnecessary e-mail we get.
I am sick to death of the scam offers from various widows and orphans of potentates in miserable African countries offering to send millions of dollars to my bank account. I don't need Viagra, thank you. My penis is good enough to get the job done, thank you. No, I don't need ringtones that only imbeciles can here. And so on, add nausea. (no, not ad nauseum)
Since most people don't actually write real letters or even send real cards any more, I wonder what ``friends'' are thinking when they forward chain friendship messages created by someone else. How original is that? I am careful who I call ``friend,'' so I like to think that my very few real friends know that I am thinking of them and know that I wish them well. Sometimes I actually write them or call them or say hi when I see them to reinforce those feelings. I don't send them chain mail.
Blogs are one way people can keep their friends up to speed on what's going on in their lives or what they think is interesting or useful or important enough to share. That's why I am writing this. It's why I hope you'll look at a site called BreakTheChain.org , which discusses this crusade much more eloquently.
I also recommend ScamBusters.org, which gives some useful advice on ways to reduce unsolicited, unwanted or downright unnecessary e-mail messages.

Standin' at the Crossroads

2008-02-23T10:39:00.006+09:00

Ariel, Meg and Robert Johnson made contracts with the Devil. The results were not always what they had in mind.

Lots of white folks, including me, have embraced the blues as a style of music. Of course the blues is more than that. It's a cultural heritage of the U.S. back when black folks had plenty to sing the blues about. So it's a lasting testament to a way of life for some, and the white folks who play blues are paying respect to it in their way.
When I was first learning to play the guitar, an old black piano player at a bar in my hometown called the Crossroads Cafe (next to the Erie & Lackawanna railroad line a couple of blocks from its crossing with the Pennsylvania and New York Central tracks) told me that to be a real musician, I had to not be afraid to ``bust out,'' and not just play music the way everyone else played it.
Black blues musicians I knew said that to play the blues, you need too have had many women, too much whiskey and too many heartbreaks from both. That's not easy for a skinny white 13-year-old guy. Even so, there was no shortage of advice, usually topped off with the reality that the best blues men (John Lee Hooker, Sun House, Howlin' Wolfe, Lightnin' Slim, Elmore James, B.B. King, and so on) were and are black. (That's not to take anything away from Eric Clapton, John Mayall, Ry Cooder, or Susan Tedeschi and Bonnie Raitt.)
So I among among the many who sought to learn more about the blues and where that music came from. I'll give you some links at the bottom of this so you can learn more too. Anyway, along the way, there was this ever-present and not entirely joking notion that if you want to be a truly great blues musician, you’d have to be willing to sell your soul to the devil. There's a long list of people who have paid such a dear price for something special. Even the Disney heroines Ariel (The Little Mermaid) and Meg (Hercules) sold out.
Maybe the best-known of the blues legends who are said to have made a pact with the devil is Robert Johnson.
Robert Leroy Johnson was born in the Mississippi Delta, right down there in the blue gum country along with the blues that sustained him through his all-too-brief 27-year lifespan. Keith Richards is among many musicians who have said there would be no rock 'n' roll without the blues, and Johnny Winter, Jimi Hendrix, Greg and Duane Allman, Neil Young, John Fogerty, and many others who made it in the world of rock are just a few of a great many musicians whose guitar style, singing style and whole approach to music were influenced by Johnson. Eric Clapton, who has a tribute album of Johnson’s songs in his discography (Me and Mr. Johnson, in 2004), called Johnson “The most important blues musician who ever lived.” And even though Johnson was long dead before there was ever a Rolling Stone magazine, he ranked fifth in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
So, yeah, Johnson had talent. We don't have much to go on. He recorded just 29 songs in two sessions, including 12 alternate takes. And the notion that he knew the devil comes out in six of them. It isn't surprising that the notion that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil (not necessarily the biblical Satan, but more likely the African-voodoo trickster devil Legba). And this is the theme of Crossroads, a short, very good but not widely appreciated Walter Hill movie that features Tim Russ as Johnson, Joe Seneca as his friend Poor Willie Brown, and an Academy Award-nominated soundtrack composed and played by Ry Cooder and performed by him and Steve Vai, who played both parts of a musical duel that I would rather you see and hear than have me tell you about.
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090888/soundtrack ), (Sonny Terry did the harmonica parts for Seneca). Ralph Macchio (the Karate Kid) and Jami Gertz are in it, and although Macchio didn't actually play the duel with Steve Vai, he did go through the fingering in a nearly accurate note-for-note simulation. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8eymimAV8k&feature=related).

If you have a little time, take a walk down to the Crossroads yourself and see what this blues is all about. You can get more about Robert Johnson here:
http://www.deltahaze.com/johnson/bio.html
http://www.robertjohnsonbluesfoundation.org/Bio.html

Headlines Imperil Clarity

2008-01-30T11:27:00.000+09:00

As the Internet increasingly becomes the medium 'o' choice for information, the newsmongering industry ought to look anew at the way it calls attention to what we old hacks call news. Headlines are not what they used to be when typography mattered.
Tabloid headlines used to be built with type big enough to fill the width of the page, thus giving us such gems as
HEADLESS BODY
IN TOPLESS BAR
And broadsheet newspapers are typically designed with the most prominent story getting the fattest type, which accounts for ambiguity in 72-point revelations such as this:
Pregnant Women Can Fly, FAA Says
(Move over Dumbo, says I)
My own employer imposes a 63-character count, allowing no more than three characters short of fill, on stories that stand alone. And in my earlier days at The New York Times, we had single-column, multiple deck heads that could not have word echoes (saying the same word twice in the whole headline), which sent everyone scrambling for a thesaurus full of three-letter verbs.
So I know, after four decades at this, that headline writing is more an art than a skill, and that the myriad rules of different news media must leave the audience scratching its collective head, so to speak, at what we must mean when we leave out words of clarity for the sake of brevity and design.
But I sometimes wonder why headlines have to be so fuzzy on web news portals, where the imperatives are more flexible and, one would hope, there is room to be more precise. MSN, the Microsoft news portal, draws from many other media for its news package. As a guitar player and longtime fan of Carlos Santana, I had to stop for a second look at the headline that told me "Mets Reach Deal to Acquire Santana." Of course if you allow that headlines are supposed to be devices that hook the reader and get him or her to read the story beneath them, the MSN head (via Fox Television) did the job.

Brighten Your Mood

2008-01-17T14:38:00.000+09:00

Remember mood rings? Back when I had more hair and less tummy, they were the thing to have to show you were in a mellow mood (blue). The setting of the ring worked on the principle that activates liquid crystals in TV display panels. If the stone is black, you're stressed. It's basically a thermotropic reaction that makes changes in the liquid crystal molecules in relation to the temperature nearest the stone--that of your finger, for example. So if your fingers get cold, it can seem you're in a foul mood even when you're happy.
One little factoid you can use as a conversation-stopper next time there's a party is that your typical body surface temperature (as opposed to your body temperature) is about 82 degrees Farenheit or 28 degrees Celsius. So if your body surface is in that range, the mood ring stone would be green. The happier and warmer you are, the more the mood stone tends to dark blue.
Another quick and colorful way of defining your state of mind is in an even older gimmick called the color quiz, which is a way of measuring your anxiety or mellowed-out-ness by your color preferences. It's no less silly than phrenology or necromancy, I guess. Actually, since today has not been a particularly good day as I near the end of a not particularly good week, the response on my instant mood assessment through the color quiz was not a surprise. Here's what the colors I picked say about me:
Your Existing Situation
Volatile and outgoing. Needs to feel that events are developing along desired lines, otherwise irritation can lead to changeability or superficial activities.
Your Stress Sources
Resilience and tenacity have become weakened. Feels overtaxed, worn out, and getting nowhere, but continues to stand his ground. He feels this adverse situation as an actual tangible pressure which is intolerable to him and from which he wants to escape, but he feels unable to make the necessary decision.
Your Restrained Characteristics
Insists that his goals and realistic and sticks obstinately to them, even though circumstances are forcing him to compromise. Very exacting in the standards he applies to his choice of a partner.
Your Desired Objective
Longs for tenderness and for a sensitivity of feeling into which he can blend. Responsive to anything esthetic and tasteful.
Your Actual Problem
Tensions and stresses induced by trying to cope with conditions which are really beyond his capabilities or reserves of strength have led to considerable anxiety, and a sense of personal (but admitted) inadequacy. He seeks to escape into a more peaceful and problem-free situation, in which he will no longer have to assert himself or contend with so much pressure.
Your Actual Problem #2
Needs to achieve a stable and peaceful condition, enabling him to free himself of the worry that he may be prevented from achieving all the things he wants.

Doesn't that sound familiar? I guess it's another way of saying I'll be glad when the weekend rolls around, so I can relax and recharge.
You can take the test here:
http://www.colorquiz.com/cgi-bin/start3.cgi\

And check the interactive mood ring here:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=question443.htm&url=http://www.ajcockrell.com/ajcockrell/moodring.htm

The Frog Prince

2008-01-02T12:51:00.000+09:00

It's not easy to explain how memories are made. Certainly we don't remember everything that has ever happened to us or passed before our eyes or between our ears. You know what it's like to bump into someone whom you know you know, but you can't put a name to the face. "I'll never forget whatshername" is a common affliction, and it doesn't mean the forgetful person is being thoughtless. It's just that we are human, and memories get overwritten with other experiences and, darn it, we forget.
I find, though, as the years advance, that it is possible to keep the archives limber and responsive, and often that is done by getting new things to remember, which then link to older memories and so on back deep into the vault. It may be a reason why, as the year begins, I smile. I have new things worth remembering. So, naturally, I want to reinforce those good things and keep them coming. Meanwhile, perhaps by comparison or just because of random synapse zapping, I dredge up a forgotten happy moment from an otherwise not-so-happy situation and that reinforces the new happy memory.
Happiness abounds, in other words. I think love has something to do with it. Loving and being loved. It's a happy thought, isn't it.
Don't forget.

Countdown

2007-12-31T04:18:00.000+09:00

Well everybody, I hope you have set your alarm clocks. We are into the countdown to 2008 and it could hardly be better. I am not able to tell you too specifically why beyond saying that things are just so remarkably enjoyable even at this very moment as I type this, you wouldn't believe me even if I could be more specificd.
Um, how specific can I be? Well, the things I had hoped for so long are all around me. And the people who make them possible are as kind and generous and sweet and loving as your wildest dreams could conjur. And in some sense, I have to say thank you to someone who indirectly helped bring all this together by trying to kill me a few months ago.
Rage does strange things to people. It is scary. And in the aftermath, there are doubts and attempts to soften the shock. None of that matters now. She has a bright red coat and a closet full of costumes. Her fantasies come true every month or so by long-distance. All that twisted sense of dreams fulfilled is also waaay past my caring now.
Instead, I see, although not yet clearly, at least so much more brightly than I could a year ago. I am on what you might call the receiving end of bliss. And what could be a better way to start the new year?
I think a toast is in order!. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: Peace of mind, good health, happiness, love returned, caring and sharing. They are all out there, and this is even before the new year has begun....how nice is that?

Annus Notsobadus

2007-12-26T22:41:00.000+09:00

On one hand, 2007 will go down as a year of dubious note for all the bad things that happened. On the other hand, however, it certainly is closing out on an upbeat note. It's not good to make comparisons, but I can't help but look back on events of the past three months as outstanding in a nice way, after things like death and destruction, blindness, poverty and despair in the first three or so. The middle has become a soft blurr, which is just as well.
So now, we set the table, adding some Oshogatsu touches (The new year will be the year of the mouse or rat, if you are keeping track.), and prepare for quiet, happy times. We'll have a toast to the tail end of the old year and another toast, perhaps with honey or jam, to the year to come. And since I am the optimist of the bunch, I will work on the idea that if things are this good already, they must be about to get even better. Let's see if we can make that happen.
Oh, I didn't forget the gingerbread recipe. It was very good gingerbread, according to authoritative sources, so I will post the recipe after the new year. We're too busy getting ready to tuck in to a raspberry pound cake and some nice spicy Korean barbecue. But we'll get back to you in the new year. Happy holidays to all, and to all a good night.

Christmas Colors

2007-12-14T22:15:00.001+09:00

Counting down from today, we have just 10 days until Christmas eve. That will be a special day here (partly because Christmas day is a working day in Japan, unfortunately). It seems most of what I cook these days looks like the Christmas decorations. Tonight's salad, for example, was dark green leafy stuff with baby tomatoes and red and green peppers and white Mozarella. The dessert was fresh strawberries with yogurt and honey. So, to keep a sense of balance not to look like Italian nationalists or Santa's workshop, I made chicken-vegetable stew and garlic toast--which is a great way to recycle old French bread.
Yesterday, I made ginger bread, using a great-grandmother recipe out of Germany, which includes applesauce, but modified with my sense of Asia, using fresh-grated ginger root and, instead of allspice, cardamom, cloves and more cinnamon. And instead of dark molasses, I used kuro mitsu. That's a kind of black molasses, and the flavor....well, the result was pretty good, by my standard. I will get a second opinion from my special friend and let you know. And if she likes it, I will post the recipe. If not..... well, let's see how it goes.

Muffins!

2007-12-12T13:35:00.000+09:00

I received a sweet pre-Christmas present today: Blueberry muffins. These muffins are special because they were made by a special person. Besides that, I know how she made them, and it is pretty clever, especially for people who may not have or want to buy all the parts to make muffins from scratch. She used pancake mix. And because blueberries are very expensive and not easy to find in Japan at this time of the year, she used dried fruit, soaked in hot water, then sweetened with honey. Very nice.
I appreciate her thoughtfulness and her muffins. At Christmas, people sometimes give gifts or get involved in gift-exchange things without knowing what to give. My advice, if I may offer it, when you are not sure what to give, is to give something you would like to receive. That has an element of the Golden Rule to it, I suppose, but in the worst case, that person will know you have good taste!
Another thought, especially about gift-exchange giving, is to give a few small things, rather than one big one. For example, one friend told mer her office will exchange gifts, and people were told to keep the price within 2,000 yen, or about US$20. Well, that does not buy much in Tokyo these days. It seems that nice and clever gifts can be found from about 1,000 yen and less, and for more than 2,000 yen, but not for 2,000. So I suggested that she buy a 1,000 yen gift, plus some 100 yen gifts to put in a nice bag. Things like bath salts, or sachets or potpouri fragrance things are good. Wine is another nice gift, and even if the person who receives it doesn't drink, they can recycle the wine to someone who does.
So, I'm having coffee and a blueberry muffin now, and saying thank you to the chef!

Adjustments

2007-12-11T00:59:00.000+09:00

That huge wad of roses, pine boughs and cotton bolls was just too formidable for the table, so I made some adjustments. What do you think? My dear muffin-making friend says it looks more like a New Year decoration than a Christmas arrangement, but that's alright, because I will need a New Year decoration too. One nice thing about being a foreigner in Japan is that I have the choice of holidays, and I like to observe Japanese events as well as those more familiar to me.
One thing we discussed is the similarity of some events across cultures. Halloween and Thanksgiving come about the same time as the Day of the Dead or Diwli or Obon and similar harvest-time, ghost-welcoming, spirit-honoring, ancestor-revering events in other parts of the world. Christmas and Kwanzaa and Hanukkah come at about the same time, and though they obviously honor different events, some of the customs associated with those holidays are similar, so it is no problem to observe a Jewish festival (which, by the way, ends tomorrow) of light, as well as Christmas and Kwanzaa, the African harvest festival, from Dec. 26, or Norooz from the start of the new year. I was never quite sure what Boxing Day was all about (I thought it was some kind of sports day when I was a kid in Indiana. We obviously didn't get out much.)
So the decorations don't matter too much. Some all-purpose combination of cotton and roses and pine should do for all of them plus any others I don't know about. The important thing at these times is to think of the idea of sharing and respecting each other and basically trying harder to live by the Golden Rule (or whatever you choose to call it in your culture.) All seem to have the same fundamental notion, which is simply this: "Treat others as you would like them to treat you."
As the Dalai Lhama put it, "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
This holiday season is as good a time as any to put that into practice, don't you think?
Have some of the good feeling of Why Don't You and I, live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwFTcQMKJDg&feature=related

Cho-Choju Giga

2007-12-10T01:51:00.000+09:00

The Suntory Gallery, in Tokyo's new Midtown shopping-office-malling complex, is about to wrap up a fascinating look at what might well have been the first manga, ink illustrations on scrolls, some of which date from the 12th century. The oldest of the illustrations depicts animals doing things people would do-- or would have done 700 or 800 years ago. Most of the scenes involve frogs and rabbits, and you know this is a fantasy, because the frogs are as big as the rabbits, for one thing.
There are other scrolls that show some more straightforward illustrations, such as sketches of religious activities or fables dealing with Buddhism, and even a sequence of what to put it gently might be called an ancient farting contest.
The exhibit drew upon sets of these illustrations compiled by temples and other galleries and museums, and some illustrations that were not included in the scrolls. Historians are still trying to figure out who did the illustrations and why, but they have come up with some guesses and pieced together the illustrations based on what is known so far.
We particularly liked the sumo competition, in which the frog, who has a tummy much like mine, is decked by a fox. There are illustrations of rabbits who might have been the inspiration for the Uncle Remus Br'er Rabbit stories, and pompous priest frogs and wild boars and monkeys giving each other baths--something Japanese monkeys actually do at hot spring resorts, without having to pay.
Viewing the whole exhibit was out of the question, since some of the scrolls were rolled up to reveal other illustrations a week at a time, so it would have involved going back to the gallery weekly.
There are stories, or fables, to go with some of the illustrations, something like Aesop's fables, only more to do with things like a mouse who wanted to marry a human princess, or the farmer who gave up his daughter to a monkey who agreed to help him till his paddies. It's more interesting to see than to write about. But here is what you missed (or will miss unless you get there by Dec. 12.)
http://www.suntory.com/culture-sports/sma/exhibition/07vol04/index.html

Whoville

2007-12-05T01:44:00.000+09:00

Quomodo Invidiosulus nomine Grinchus Christi natalem abrogaverit . Or almost.

A Brunchtime Journey

2007-12-02T15:44:00.000+09:00

"Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper."

This being Dec. 2, another less day before Christmas, I was thinking about the Advent calendar. And this being Sunday, breakfast was brunch. This is a custom I had not observed for several months, until recently, when I found myself making it for two again after coffee and cake in bed to wake up with. A good brunch is the start of a good day.
I was inspired today by an idea from my dear friend: Papaya fruit boats. Actually, my little papayas from Okinawa were only big enough for fruit kayaks, but, as she said, even a kayak can let you sail on a journey wherever you want to go.
I thought about that and about a comment from noted food person Julia Child, who said "You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients." So I made a fancy omelette to go with the papaya kayaks, croissant, orange juice and coffee and thought about where I would like my kayaks to take me.
The destination is Negril, Jamaica. There, you may find some of the best food in the world and, as Julia suggested, made from fresh ingredients. So, in the days before Christmas, since I am back in the mood for food and for taking the time to fix it, I will steal some ideas from the menu of Negril's Rockhouse restaurant, a particularly good place to dine well without spending too much. As my dear friend and I agree, it is much more enjoyable to make food to share with someone than to dine alone. We seem to bring out the culinary creativity in each other, which, I believe, is a fine quality.
You can see the menu here:
http://www.negrilonestop.com/rockhouse/rhrestmenu.htm
And learn more about Negril here:
http://www.negril.com/2/aboutnegril/

And, while Advent calendars are usually for kids, they are not exclusively for kids. I think grownups will get a kick out of trying the quizzes on the interactive Advent calendar. And keep in mind the 24 days of Advent are not like the 12 Days of Christmas, which come AFTER Christmas day. Confused? Well, life is like that.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/calendar/

Another Day Before Christmas

2007-12-01T17:41:00.000+09:00

I did a bit of Christmas shopping yesterday and at one of the shops, I asked the clerk whether she had gone nuts yet by constant exposure to the same Christmas carols on the background music.
''Not quite, but I think it will happen soon,'' she said.
And I agree, which is why one of the Christmas presents I got myself -- ahead of schedule -- is a little Sony Walkman MP3 player, so I can listen to something other than Christmas carols when I am out of the comfortable confines of home. So I thought it would be nice to see what songs you would rather listen to than Deck the Halls or Jingle Bells ten zillion times.
Here's a little inspiration I got from Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idb2dUtTpuU

As an aside, I am also trying not to get too caught up in Christmas food just yet either. I will do that when it gets down to a handful of days before. But for now, simple fare, such as what's in the picture here (pork chops, potatoes, peas and corn, a salad and some wine, from last night, or the beef stew that's simmering now, will do just fine.
Bon Apetit.

The First Day of Pre-Christmas

2007-11-29T19:35:00.000+09:00

On the umpteenth day before Christmas, I am gradually getting into the holiday spirit. Thanksgiving has been my marker for holidays ever since I was a little boy. Then, my memories of the smells of Thanksgiving dinner with a huge turkey, ham, stuffing, orange-candied yams and pumpkin pie in Grandma’s kitchen were enhanced by the fitful beginnings of snow and my Dad and uncles passed out in a post-feast stupor in front of a random football game – usually involving the Chicago Bears or Green Bay Packers, or both.
Now, in Tokyo, the view of Christmas is different, of course. Japan has gradually taken in Christmas as a market opportunity that follows another more recent ''tradition,'' of Halloween. So, just after Halloween, it is time to put up the Christmas decorations. I have resisted. I stand by Thanksgiving as plenty soon enough.
But I am practicing for the real thing. I am considering the menu, having just about cleared away the last of the post-Thanksgiving leftovers. The tree is up and decorated. The table – well, the table is a work in progress, involving experiments with different combinations of candles and flowers, and a gift of cotton bolls on stalks from my special friend.
Christmas won't be what it was when I was a child, of course, or even what it was a year ago. Now, though, I can celebrate it with a glad heart. I can try, for example, to mumble all the words to The Twelve Days of Christmas, which were as hard to remember as the name of the little girl who played opposite Jean Reno in Leon (Natalie Portman).
Now I have them, though, and I share them with you, in the spirit of Christmas:
On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me a partridge in a pear tree.
On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.
On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.
On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Eight maids a-milking, Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Nine ladies dancing, Eight maids a-milking, Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Ten lords a-leaping, Nine ladies dancing, Eight maids a-milking, Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Eleven pipers piping, Ten lords a-leaping, Nine ladies dancing, Eight maids a-milking, Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Twelve drummers drumming, Eleven pipers piping, Ten lords a-leaping, Nine ladies dancing, Eight maids a-milking, Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree!
By the way, you may be interested (or not, I don’t care either way) to know that Jean Reno is making a Pink Panther sequel, which includes Steve Martin of course, and features Yuki Matsuzaki, John Cleese and the beautiful Aishwarya Rai.

Count Your Blessings

2007-11-25T09:19:00.001+09:00

Things look different when viewed from just one eye. This makes me appreciate the fact that I have one good one while I await the prospect of sight returning to the other. Things like this and other events of the past few months make me especially thankful right now.
I could use the one good eye to prepare for today's Thanksgiving dinner, and there are many other things to put on the list. Way up high is the fact that I have met new people, whom I hope I will call friend in the true sense. Another chart-topper is good health, especially considering the other things that have come along.
There are several other thanks-worthy things that I won't bore you with. Some people who have come and gone from my life have made lasting impressions and given me moments of happiness beyond measure. Others have taught me useful or important or clever things, and these little skills, recalled at the right times, have proven invaluable. I'm learning to be less hasty, even though the clock is ticking. It's worth the time it takes to stop and consider the alternatives. Doing so makes the good things that much better and the not-so-good things less worth dwelling upon.
I have helped others without expecting anything, and, sure enough, have received nothing. I have given things in the spirit of affection and had them flung back at me or shattered before my eyes. I have loved and lost. I have been cheated, robbed, lied to, threatened with death. For all that, I have had others help me without any reason. I have had people give me things in the spirit of affection, sharing and concern. I have been loved. I may be loved again. I have been treated fairly, kindly, and with generosity. I have had expert caregivers help me guard my health. There is a balance. The balance is worth counting as a blessing, I think.
So if you have had or are having or will have Thanksgiving, I hope you reflect on the things you have to be thankful for. And even if you don't observe the holiday as such, I hope you will take time to count your blessings.
While you still can.

Words and Music

2007-11-20T17:28:00.001+09:00

Shakira has something for everyone. Fifteen-or-so years ago, I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez in translation, first with Cien Anos de Solidad (One Hundred Years of Solitude), and then Love In The Time of Cholera. Both are love stories. The former, considered the author's masterpiece and the book for which he most justly deserves his Nobel Prize, is a history of Garcia Marquez's native Colombia and, in effect, a history of all Latin America. The second, Amor en Los Tiempos del Cólera, is, in terms of the span of time of the story, half as long as the first, and is a story of a love triangle. The latter, without giving away details to spoil it for you, is now a movie. And although I have only seen the trailer, it seems the film is faithful at least to the spirit of the book for me, with its steamy, dreamlike quality.

And, as I mentioned at the beginning, Shakira, who, as coincidence often plays out with such things, is also from Colombia, does the theme song. Perhaps the words (In Spanish) and the music and the backdrop of scenes from the film, will give you a reason to look for this or any of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's writing. His Florientino Ariza is a hopeless romantic and avid reader, which only fuels his romantic nature in an (utlimately) unrequieted love affair. Well, life is like that. Passion for sure, but, also as in real life, nothing sticks. Maybe true love is the purest form of suffering.

At least have a look at Shakira's video preview:
http://music.aol.com/popeater/2007/11/16/shakira-despedida-video-exclusive/

Patches of Fashion

2007-11-20T08:29:00.000+09:00

Daryll Hannah could pull off this eyepatch thing and look brutally sexy. When I do it, I look like Santa as a weekend pirate. I think I am not the eye-patch type, or at least I haven't found any fashion eye patches that have the right look. This is especially hard to make work as a fashion statement when you have to wear eyeglasses.
Eye surgery to repair a detached retina in my right eye went well, the doctor says. By well, she means I can see a kind of watery light in my right eye, and she tells me the liquid that makes images look like I am half-submerged and the gas that keeps up the pressure inside the retina so it will (eventually, if not sooner, we hope) stick to the inside of the eyeball, will gradually fade away. I am not sure what it will leave me with, in terms of being able to see again, but that is for later.
For today, I am still mostly face-down, except for this brief interlude for breakfast and a pee break before being face down again. Tomorrow, the stitches (yes, stitches on the eyeball) come out, and we shall see (har har) what I can do about getting on with life. Thanksgiving is coming, and believe me, I am thankful I can even see the watery light, which is much better than being in darkness. And I am thankfull I still have a pretty good left eye.
I almost look forward to being able to see Kill Bill 2 again if I could do it with proper eyesight. Being basically blind in one eye and able to see only vaguely without correction in the other is not a way I would like to serve out the rest of my time if I have a choice. Unfortunately, eyes, once damaged, are harder to recover full use of than other body parts. so take care of your body parts--all of them.

Eye Candy

2007-11-14T19:23:00.000+09:00

Life would be a lot more pleasant if things would stop breaking. My most recent medical encounter was eye surgery today to repair a detached retina in my right eye. I write this little entry with a patch. I should be face down on the bed now so the operation can do its work to (I hope) restore some vision.
This sort of thing usually happens as the result of a sharp blow to the head. I have not had one of those in about five months, when I got whacked on the head with a dinosaur, so I am pretty sure that isn’t the cause. The doctor said the main thing is not the cause but the cure, so I should focus (har har) on obeying the rules of recovery. That means I should not be writing this, but I thought it might be a good cautionary tale, reminding those who read me to take care of eyes. I have learned a lot in the past three days about how difficult it is to function without good vision. I am fortunate to have good care and prompt surgery. Dr. Sano says I have a good chance of recovering my sight, or at least most of it. That sounds really nice right now.
By the way the eye in the U.S. dollar bill, grotesque as it seems, is part of the Great Seal of the United States, adopted by Congress June 20, 1782. It may have something to do with Masonic symbolism, as we were told by Nicholas Cage and friends in National Treasure. Then again, it may just be because Masons were fairly well represented when the United States was founded, with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and probably others, among the members of the order, and those symbols were a lot better-known than they are now. Anyway, the eye was considered important enough to make it to the dollar bill, so I reckon eyes are important enough to take good care of, too. One piece of advice I can give for free is that if you notice that your vision is blurred or impaired in any way, get a thorough eye exam from a competent eye specialist (not the corner contact lens shop!!). There are several things that could cause your vision to fail, and I hope you don’t have any of them.
The National Eye Institute has more to say on this subject:
http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/retinaldetach/index.asp

光歩, La Luz De La Aurora

2007-11-02T20:29:00.000+09:00

I was humming a couple of songs today. It's something I haven't done in awhile, and I take it as a good sign. One that is still in my head is Carole King's You've Got a Friend. The notion of friendship and where it starts and how far it stretches has been on my mind recently as sails on the distant horizon.
Ok, songs and poems and images. One of the images in my head is of Claude Monet's ''Sunrise,'' which is, as irony would have it, a painting of boats on the horizon at dawn in the harbor at Le Havre. It was a painting he did two years before an exhibition of what came to be known as Impressionism--a term he disliked immensely. Critics chose Sunrise as the target of scorn for the style that Monet and colleagues used to show light.
Monet, not surprisingly, was subject to radical mood swings, which I think we would probably call bipolarism these days. When he was up, his work showed it. One of the problems he had was cataracts, which dimmed and muddied his sense of color, both in the way his sight was impaired, and in the way he painted. Look at a body of his work next time a Monet exhibition comes your way and see how light dimmed in his work and how it re-emerged after he had corrective surgery.
This wasn't about eye problems or even mood swings, but about friendships and where they can go. I am not really sure, despite many trials and errors. But I have a good feeling, which I am guarding like the eternal flame right now, about the dawn that I faintly perceive on the horizon.
Yes, I am preternaturally optimistic. But a serendipitous encounter recently brought something sweet at the conclusion of an otherwise not-very-good day. A return engagement is on the horizon too, so to speak, and I am looking forward to it as nothing I have anticipated in months.
So Carole King's lines about doubt and trouble and needing a helping hand are all valid, of course. And when I see or say the name in the title of this particular entry, I get the clear sense that the hand is being extended. It is the hand of friendship. It is light on the horizon. I pray that it will shine brightly for a very, very long time.

No Tenga Nade

2007-10-29T12:27:00.000+09:00

No Tenga Nade

There was a second party, less ambitious this time, to pay a little tribute to Carlos Santana (I got the Ultimate Santana CD). We had wine (Sangre de Toro—blood of the bull, and Nerola White Catalunya) and Paella. Yes, it’s Spanish, but we just had Mexican stuff (Santana was born in Mexico) just a couple of weeks ago, so this was just for variety. Instead of the traditional pan, I used a wok to make the Paella, but nobody seemed to mind.
The guests were fewer in number than at the Day of the Dead party, and more contemplative—maybe the wine does that—and the conversation began with an appreciation of Santana’s musical contributions over the past 40-some years. His music, at least what I know of it, started with a combination of jazz and blues and roamed the world, in collaborations with Buddy Miles, John Coltrane and Miles Davis, touching on east Indian music and even Willie Nelson tunes. Now, we have the new album that more or less pulls together the best, with some new ones. My favorite for the moment anyway is Into the Night, with Chad Kroeger of Nickelback. Santana also works with Jennifer Lopez and Steve Tyler, Michelle Branch, and even Tina Turner (The Game of Love).
And the album includes remasters of Black Magic Woman, Europa, and Oye Como Va. We had Abraxas and several other Santana CDs, but we pretty much came back to this one, because it has most of the good stuff, including a minor hit off his Santana II, No One to Depend On. (The title of this Blog entry in Spanish.)
And we got talking about friendships. Here we are, a mix of folks from England, Canada, the U.S. and Japan, who find ourselves in a chat in Tokyo about a musician we all admire. And in this setting, we have a basis for friendship. No one to depend on? Well, it depends on what you want of a friendship, doesn't it? And it depends on how dependent you are upon friends to get you through your own life.
I say, at this stage, that if you can count friends on one finger, let alone one hand, you are indeed fortunate. Some people use the word friend too easily. I have many acquaintances, but very few friends, and even fewer upon whom I would choose to depend. Fortunately, despite all the stupid things I have done in my life, those I call friend have stuck with me. All save one. I still regard her as a friend, but I have been wrong many times before.
What did I do to lose that one? I lied. Would you lie to spare a friend grief? Well, it goes against my most basic principle, but I have done it, and I would do it again. Am I going to burn in hell for it? Maybe that's why I could appreciate Santana even more, because there is much that is positive in his work. If you get a chance to see the video (There have been copyright problems with posting it on YouTube, I see), I think you can understand what I'm talking about here. The producers of the video tell a nice little story of how to get beyond despair. Try this one http://music.aol.com/popeater/2007/09/11/video-premiere-santana-teams-with-chad-kroeger/. See what you think. Invite a friend. (Even one)

In Vino Veritas

2007-10-22T12:42:00.000+09:00

Japan is the world's second-largest economy, but is certainly second to none when it comes to the effort it puts into retailing. Where else could you find people waiting in a neat, security guard-controlled line for two hours to buy Krispy Kreme donuts?
For some reason I don't understand, donuts are a very fickle bellwether of retailing trends in Japan. Almost as fickle as ice cream. Dunkin Donuts pulled away from Japan a dozen years ago, to have most of its store locations taken over by the Yoshinoya beef-bowl chain. They left the field to Mr. Donuts, which is run by a company that distributes doormats and here sells Chinese dim-sum and noodles. And now, thanks to the newly opened Yurakucho Itocia shopping and office complex a short walk from Tokyo's Ginza district, we have Japan's second Krispy Kreme outlet. And people are willing (or were last Friday) to line up for the policeman's choice.
Also in the underground shopping and food portion of Itocia is a neat little wine shop that was featuring wine from thousand-year-old grapes. You may not believe me, but I was more interested in the display at Vinos Yamazaki than in standing in line two hours for donuts. There is a wine-tasting bar much like we find at wineries, where, at least in the first few days, we could get free samples. Now, the bar charges for samplings of up to 10 featured wines, and offers a nice variety of cheeses from the selection nearby.
The thousand-year-old grape come-on worked well for me, as I was in the market for pretty good, not-very-expensive wine for a party. What goes well with Mexican food? I can say that one answer is the Orvieto. It's trendy enough that Frank Prial wrote about it, and it seemed to disappear quicker than the Yellowtail, although to be honest, all the wine vanished before the night was done. (So did the tequila and most of the rum, and I could swear I had another bottle of shampoo somewhere.)

For more about the wine: http://www.bevnetwork.com/monthly_issue.asp?date=7/1/2007

While I am on a full-disclosure kick here, I should admit that perhaps part of the reason people came to my party is because I profess to be good at cooking and know a little bit about wine (with help from friends who know waaay more than me). I could establish the cooking cred, but it wasn't until I popped the corks on the ancient-grape wine that people, especially the young ladies present, began to notice I was in the room (It was, after all, MY party.)
I remember the clever Latin quote on the labels of one of my favorite wines, the fine Zinfandel produced by Doug Nalle, family and friends and kept in a rosemary-covered bunker in the Dry Creek area near Healdsburg, California. ``Vinum sapientium tibi dat. (Wine makes you think you're smart.)''

See more about Doug's wine labels here: http://www.nallewinery.com/labels.html

Now I have another important insider tip on the benefits of wine from Dr. Ruth, to the effect that wine also makes you sexier. Or at least knowledge of wine makes you more attractive to the opposite sex. I admit that once people get a few glasses of wine down, everybody at least seems a little bit sexier. Anyway, Dr. Ruth should know. She is the author of Sex for Dummies, The Art of Arousal, Dr. Ruth's Guide to Erotic & Sensuous Pleasures and Dr. Rruth's Guide to Good Sex, among others. (I kept my copy of Sex for Dummies hidden away during the party.)
Maybe I should keep this hidden away too, but here are a few tips on how to seem sexier:
1. Learn about wine and drink lots of it. (Remember that it's wine knowledge, not just the wine, that makes you sexier.
2. Go to wine tastings and pay attention to more than just the wine. They are worth the price, even in Japan, because there are hordes of singles at large. When you find (or corner) an appealing suspect at the same table, strike up a conversation. Ask what they have tried and what they like. Offer your recommendations. Maybe more will come of it if you follow up with a date invitation that involves sharing wine.
3. If you get the chance for a second date, wine and roses make a memorable combination. If you get the chance, ask beforehand whether your date prefers red or white.
4. Don't assume too much about your date's wine knowledge if you don't know (and don't waste a nice bottle on an evening that might end up being a downer).
5. Convince one of your friends to hold a singles wine tasting party. Go.
6. Take a wine class and be nice to the cute people in it. Don't be a know-it-all; ask them, and LISTEN to their ideas.
7. Never, ever get sloppy drunk on wine with someone you haven't had sex with yet, unless that is the goal.

(Read about Dr. Ruth Westheimer's notions of sex, wine and videotape here: http://www.winexmagazine.com/index.php/wine/viewplay/dr-ruth/

Un Chocolat

2007-10-09T21:10:00.000+09:00

My momma always said, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."
A bartender I don't like at all once compared me to Forrest Gump. He doesn't know me, and I prefer that our paths never cross. If he knew what would most likely happen, I'm sure he would feel the same. But I believe that he was trying to say I was like Forrest as the guy always trying to rescue a certain someone the bartender has known in the Biblical sense. Forrest's Jenny didn't want to be saved. She did everything she could to avoid it, in fact, and, at least in the book, and the movie too, Jenny was a real slut.
But Jenny was a slut with a good heart. Only when it was too late did she realize what she kept running away from and why. So the bartender's reference point of the story of Forrest Gump has some perilous analogies. If he really knew the detail, he would probably realize there was more Jenny in his remark than there was Forrest.
What angers me now enraged me once, especially because he and I were both painfully aware of Jenny's condition, is that Jenny continues to enjoy indulging her fantasies and fetishes, seemingly without any concern for the consequences. Ask her and she might even admit she feels more free now than ever in her life, because she thinks nobody cares and nobody will try to stop her. These little indulgences, which she tells herself are simply harmless, sexy costume fantasies, whether with her Prince Charming or someone else, are in fact the same kind of high-risk activity that got her in trouble before, although it now involves a different kind of risk.
Before, she might have considered the risk to her health, mental and psychological, but didn't. She might have considered the risk of being tossed out of room and board. Now, it seems, that no longer matters either. The analogy to Forrest Gump's story breaks down at that point, though, because Forest is disinclined to welcome Jenny back into his life.
So, Forrest's Momma was right. Life often is like a box of chocolates. You have to eat whatever you pull out.
Sometimes you DO know what you're gonna get, and you go ahead and take it anyway, don't you?
Sugar Daddies
I show my age when I reflect on the sweets we used to buy at the general store when I was a kid. One I remember is the Sugar Daddy, caramel suckers that cost just two cents each in those days and lasted a very long time. Besides being sweet, they were almost guaranteed to help with extraction of baby molars.
The candy name, as far as I can tell, has nothing at all to do with the painful (for both, eventually) relationship between a Sugar Daddy and a Sugar Babe. It’s one thing to go out with guys who don't seem to have enough money to even pay for the coffee or condoms, let alone a love hotel or roses. And it's quite another to be in a relationship where the guy pays for literally everything – everything from room and board and cute little costumes to shoes and clothes and undies and ear piercing and Brazilian waxes and medical care.
But why stop there? A girl who realizes she is sitting on a gold mine doesn't have to dream of a Sugar Daddy who will do it all without complaining, sometimes several times a day. She can find one on what was probably the first of several similar personal dating sites: http://www.sugardaddyforme.com/. The site pairs nubile young ladies who want a lover, an extramarital fling or just to be pampered and shown off, with wealthy, caring older men of means. For the young lady who wants to be treated like a princess, this simple link to the oyajis who have it all looks a lot more promising than the other casual dating sites. For one thing, it is upfront about its matchmaking without being too sleazy.
Fling with bling? Well, having thrown all the other cautions to the wind and still having a few good years to go, why not? After all, life is like a box of chocolates, isn't it?
A little chocolate never hurt anybody, did it?
http://www.hersheys.com/

All The Lonely People....Where Do They All Belong?

2007-10-06T18:39:00.000+09:00

The Beatles knew something about isolation, even when surrounded by countless adoring fans. Scientists now know that the Beatles were also onto something in their assessment of Eleanor Rigby:

``All the lonely people, where do they all belong?''

Maybe they belong in a doctor’s office. Research by a team of University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine scientists shows increased risk of cancer, heart disease and infection among people without family ties or close friends.

The research is the first to trace the genetic sources of emotion through detection of small variations in DNA.
The objective of the research was to find out how genes and immune-system inflammation are linked to loneliness or isolation. Physical changes tied to social isolation put people at risk of death. Eleanor Rigby could live to a ripe old age if she were more social, or if she could get the right medication.
Stress generates a hormone called cortisol, and when the stress is constant, the cortisol level is elevated so long among lonely people that their bodies can’t even feel it. They are, in effect, in a ‘’cry wolf’’ syndrome. Or ‘’cry lone-wolf’’ syndrome, perhaps. It means the body gets so accustomed to the cortisol secretion that the chemical just doesn’t work right anymore. And the lonely person get more depressed because they get ill, and the cycle continues.
This means the body’s bacteria-fighting abiity and virus-invasion resistance decline. The research, using so-called DNA microarrays, enabled scientists to look at many genes at once and see the long-term effects of loneliness at the molecular level.
The reasons people avoid other people are legion, of course. I let myself get into a state of semi-isolation be being too devoted to one person. That person isolated herself because of a series of traumas dating from childhood. When we were together, we both felt more secure. When that person left my life, she had to immediately know that she had someone else to turn to or face even more serious depression and, most likely, illness brought on by diminished resistance.
Alone suddenly, after being so wrapped up in her needs day and night for more than three years, I was so alone that I had to either get very ill or find a way to be more social. Our bodies, without too many interruptions, are remarkably sensitive and informative. We just need to listen harder.
Maybe it’s a good time to pull out those Beatles CDs and have a little party.

Postscript: The corticosteroid hormones produced in the adrenal gland are generated to counter stress. Cortisol in particular increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels and suppresses the immune system. It helps prepare the body for the flight-or-fight response to a crisis. Synthetic cortisol is called hydrocortisone, and doctors usually ask whether a patient has high blood pressure or diabetes before administering it.
I learned many things about cortisol and other hormones during the now-broken partnership. One was that cortisol, in addition to being closely linked to stress and especially to depression and hysteria, is also affected by a person’s waking and sleeping patterns. The normal diurnal rhythm of waking by day and sleeping by night can get really cockeyed in someone with an oversecretion of cortisol and get even more depressed early in the morning, then sleep during the day to overcome the sense of over-tiredness that comes after a stressful (panic) situation. Panic doesn’t have to be a car crash either. Depressed, isolated, lonely people can be whipped into a frenzy of crisis emotions by a bad dream, or even the thought of falling asleep and having a bad dream. This makes lonely people insomniacs too. It is not a pretty picture.

As with other hormones, cortisol is also affected by the category of medications called serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Adrenocorticotropic hormone, or ACTH in excess, or the opposite, can mess with the effectiveness of medications usually prescribed for depression, sleep-inducing medications, and medication prescribed for people subject to seizures. Women are more likely than men to have depression, panic disorder and immune system disorders. Therefore, unfortunately, most birth-control pills can also have a dangerous side effect when used in combination with the serotonin-reuptake inhibitors or the anti-depressants that are prescribed to put the body back on track. Side effects, apart from weakening of the immune system, are liver or kidney disorders, indigestion, and such things as bruising easily.
There are fairly simple warning signs of the feeling of loneliness, isolation and depression. And there are tests, hopefully to be enhanced by the results of research being done on cortisol, to enable doctors to help people adjust better to the world around them. Maybe partying isn’t the answer. But it is also certain that isolation isn’t the answer either.
Read more about how the brain deals with stress, and the consequences in terms of the body’s ability to fight illness, here: http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/stress.html

Kokoro to Waga Jinsei No Ai

2007-10-03T21:42:00.000+09:00

I write this with an unfashionable black thing hanging from my neck a few days before Sports Day, a national holiday in Japan to call attention to the importance of fitness and good health.
The thing around my neck is a Zymed DigiTrak-Plus 48 ECG monitor which checks my heart rate, the rhythm and so on and records the data to be downloaded tomorrow midday when I take it back to the hospital. I got it after a scary episode early in the day that reminded me yet again of John Lennon’s maxim that life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.
It was not a heart attack. I spent a good deal of time on a gurney while at least three emergency room doctors and nurses and aides drew blood, X-rayed me, checked muscle tone, blood chemistry and gas (yes, blood has gas, put me on a glucose drip and even gave me nitroglycerin (It comes in handy spray dispensers now). In addition to the usual prodding and poking and question-and-answer drill, I went feet-first into ultrasound, where two heart specialists watched my heart from all known medical perspectives.
It turns out they missed one, which Dr. Hasegawa (I should call him sensei from here on), a bright young cardiologist, discerned very quickly after seeing that all the tests found that I not only have a good heart (in the sense of being sound and viable, especially for my age) and almost-clear lungs (especially especially for my age), but am about 90 percent not likely to have a heart attack.
It’s the other 10 percent he is concerned about. He diagnosed my situation as anxiety disorder. This is a general term to describe a variety of conditions, which you could read more about here: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/anxiety-disorders/complete-publication.shtml.
When sensei looked at the findings of the ER team, checked my vitals and blood pressure again and showed me how to properly take my own pulse, he asked me questions. My ‘’episode’’ hit about an hour into my work day, and there was nothing particularly unusual about the work or other environmental factors. I don’t do drugs, and I have not had any alcohol for a few days, so he wanted to know whether there had been any traumatic The first thing I realized was that I had awakened the night before in a sudden burst of panic followed by depression so strong it made me cry.

This was a dream about the former significant person in my life, whom I shall refer to simply as waga jinsei no ai.
When I explained that waga jinsei no ai had left me some months ago, and that I love her deeply and I worry about how she is doing (shinpai suru). As I described some of the other things going on in my life, especially since that person left, sensei smiled and told me in English, ‘’Please don’t worry. You are fine.’’ He returned to Japanese to tell me that these conditions are not unusual when people have some deeply emotional event in their lives. Usually, people try to restore the balance, at least superficially, and get on with their daily lives. But sooner or later, as with my heart and I this morning, those events catch up with us. The effects vary widely. In my case, one of the effects is that I carry this heart monitor around.
Even after I take it off tomorrow, and no matter what the data show, I will always know that the heart, although simply a sophisticated muscle-powered blood pump, is also universally recognized as the seat of our emotions. Not the brain. Not the sex organs. The heart.

The heart.

Un-Bearable Lightness of Being

2007-09-23T22:05:00.000+09:00

Remember the words? More than the words, remember what's behind them? They're not just soundbites that sold records. They are straight from the heart.

This is a sequel to the ''Tupelo Honey'' blog, which shows how my mind works –- hop, skip and jump from one part of the map to another.What I started to do was simply listen to some of those old Elvis songs.

Problem is, some of them are like songwads stuck in my brain from a not-so-distant experience, and I cannot, no matter what else I do, get them to go away. Simple. Remember Elvis doing ''My Baby Left Me:''

Yes my baby left me,Never said a word.Was it something I done,Something that she heard?
My baby left me,My baby left me.My baby even left me,Never said a word.
Now I stand at my window,Wring my hands and cry.I hate to lose that woman,Hate to say goodbye.
You know she left me,Yes, she left me.My baby even left me,Never said a word.

A little video interlude here, just to remind you what it was like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1qCebD0OkE&mode=related&search=

And then there is, inevitably, for all the Elvis songs, ''Heartbreak Hotel:'’
Well, since my baby left me, I found a new place to dwell.Its down at the end of lonely street at Heartbreak Hotel.
Although its always crowded,You still can find some room. Where broken hearted loversCry away their gloom.

See the original 1956 TV performance hre:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Qo1eaWF8c

Yes, for those of you who asked after the last few entries, I am keeping busy, and my health is preternaturally good:
Lots of good cholesterol, very little bad cholesterol, not enough exercise, but way better than many 64-year-old sedentary bastards.
But, and this is a big-ass but...

.. I do still come back to the empty, dark apartment that I got for the two of us.
And yes, I am lonely, more than I would have expected. This morning, I was...what's the word? startled? Jolted awake by a vivid and too-realistic dream that she was beside me, and then I had another jolt in which I felt her hit me, then run away again. This keeps replaying in my brain.

Even with the company of other nice people, I fall back on the basic fact that she’s gone and I have too much time on my hands.
So I got a new CD player, so I can sing along with some of those generational songs that recall the things you and I and everyone we know has shared when we felt so desperately, pathetically alone, even in the company of our dear friends. I didn't just lose a person I shared the apartment with. I lost my dearest friend (Yes, I lost other friends in the process, but if so, they were not true friend anyway, so sayonara. But SHE matters!!
And even when we realize that our dearest of all dear friends is the one who left, we are stuck. The musicians, like Elvis, and the composers who saw and experienced and felt the stuff that went into the lyrics Elvis and others have sung about what it is like to be on the wrong end of a breakup, it is tough to get a grip on. (There was Arthur Crudup, a prolific Country & Western dude waaay before even my time on ‘’That’s All Right Mama’’ and ‘’My Baby Left Me,’’ for example, and Tommy Durden and Mae Boren Axton for ‘’Heartbreak Hotel,’’ the first song Elvis made for RCA after Sun Records sold the rights to his work for $35,000—the best deal RCA Victor ever made!

So I was listening to my birthday gift to myself and then shifted fast-forward 20 or 30 years to the Chicago era—so How about them Bears, eh? I once made my former partner a CD that included Chicago and the Beach Boys doing ‘’Wishing You Were Here’’ Before she left, she broke it and some others into shards and threw them at me. It hurt—cut, in fact—but it did not diminish my feeling for her one bit. There are so many Chicago lyrics that cut right to the car crash when it comes to burrowing through emotional stuff. Love, about to happen, happening, in danger, gone, hoping to get it back……all that stuff. So it is nice to have the performers and the creators behind them, through the generations. They remind us we are not alone. However lonely we may be, either hoping for love, hoping it is real, fearing we’re gonna lose it, losing it, hoping to get it back, on the brink of despair at not getting it back and all the shades in between. God love you all.

Steve Kipner and Jay Parker’s ‘’Hard Habit To Break’’ makes people think more carefully about the importance of someone more special than anyone else in our lives—even our own selfish friggin selves!!. To that someone:
I guess I thought you’d be here forever/
Another illusion I chose to create
You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone
And I found out just a little too late/
Now being without you takes a lot of getting used to
Should learn to live with it, but I don’t want to.
Now living without you is all a big mistake/
Instead of getting easier, it’s the hardest thing to take.
I’m addicted to you baby, you’re a hard habit to break.

The performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDAEWBuiWo&mode=related&search=
From Tupelo to Memphis and Chicago and Fukuoka and Tokyo and beyond—way beyond.
I know you’re out there somewhere
(Omygod, Moody Blues? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAhGERg5iPg)

For Chicago and the Beach Boys doing a live version of ‘’Wishing You Were Here,’’ check this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BCdELHOUpw&mode=related&search=

If you have read this far, by now, you must know I love you!
And Peter Parker brings it home: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KcV0HGL4Kg&mode=related&search=

History in a Tortoise Shell

2007-09-16T13:57:00.000+09:00

On the surface, history is just a record of social contact and/or conquest. Take condoms, for example. Condoms are as old as civilization, having turned up in Egyptian artifacts from around 3,000 B.C. in ways that aren’t clear whether they were used in religious ceremonies or for personal hygiene. The early condoms were made of linen or other fabric and were intended to protect men from catching a venereal disease. They were never intended to prevent pregnancy.
In Japan, condoms were made of leather (kawagata) and other materials, even including tortoise shell (ouch) and animal horn (Maybe that’s where the expression ‘’I’m horny’’ originated?). History suggests the sayogoromo, or ‘’small pajamas,’’ the early condoms used in Japan, were brought from China.
In 1848, the first ‘’rubbers:: were made of latex, and they were first advertised in The New York Times in 1863. By the early 1920s, artificial latex was discovered and as the roaring ‘20s gave way to the swinging ‘30s, more than 1.5 million condoms a day were being made in the United States.
As I noted in the earlier Blog entry, condoms now come in colors and flavors, as well as having different shapes, textures and clever little appendages, with the aim of making condom use more appealing to protect against a groundswell of STDs.
In Japan, the world’s biggest per-capita consumer of condoms, more than 600 million are sold in Japan annually, and more than 5 billion are sold annually worldwide. One little bit of trivia is that Fuji Latex, the biggest of Japan’s ‘’Big Three’’ condom makers, has its headquarters building in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward shaped like a giant condom (or like something that could be covered by a giant condom, at least.)
Japan’s modern condom industry had a slow start. Around the turn of the 20th century, most condoms were imported from the United States, and did not catch on until the Showa Era was well underway. A specialist in forensic medicine, Dr. Giichiro Takeda, wrote that condoms then, as now, were rejected because they limited sexual satisfaction (which I have to say is not true.)
Japan:s first manufactured condom was the Heart Bijiin (heart beauty,) made by Hosaburo Inoue in northern Tokyo by dipping sections of bamboo into latex, drying them, inflating them and dusting them with mica. The early ones often broke, we are told.
For all the condoms purchased in Japan and the rest of the world, though, there is still a scary amount of sexually transmitted disease around. I did not feel particularly relieved to read last week, for example, that there seems to be a global epidemic of risky sex planned over the internet. I already know more about that than I wanted to know. The newest report is from Melbourne, where doctors say they are fighting a reemergence of syphilis, according to Kit Fairley, director of the Melbourne Sexual Health Center. And syphilis is an STD we thought was among the diseases of the past. It turns out that it is, however, alive and spreading, among non-condom-wearing people who have vaginal or anal sex, or even during oral sex and mutual masturbation. I hope it is a coincidence that about 90 percent of the Koalas in Australia have a disease very similar to human forms of syphilis.

Good Grief

Another footnote on depression is that it’s not always easy to tell when a person is actually afflicted by bipolarism or is just going through mood swings and denial. Often, people who need help the most are those who are the most reluctant to admit it. This is not just me ranting again. If you wonder whether your mood swings are going to make you go crazy, just remember that many people have nowhere else to go.
The more I read on bipolarism, the more depressed I feel. No, that is not a joke. My depression in this comes from the fact that I couldn't really help someone dear to me overcome some serious problems that are usually associated with bipolar disorder. Of course I am not a specialist, and the fact that I am not a specialist is another reason i feel so frustrated about this.
I've written about bipolarism, which used to be called manic depression, because some of the mood swings associated with it are just what we all go through now and then. But for some people, these swings are excruciating, and can lead to or be associated with even worse problems. But don’t listen to me. Learn more about grief, guilt association, bipolarism and the causes and effects in this straight-up information presentations: http://willigocrazy.org/Ch06a5.htm. It’s also worth noting that when more common medications don't seem to help, there are more scary ways to treat depression:http://www.anxiety-and-depression-solutions.com/articles/conventional/pharmaceutical/maoi.ph

Arty-facts

2007-09-16T09:03:00.000+09:00

The big stone head in the photo (no, the other one) is a Moai, a ceremonial stone figure from Easter Island that is currently on exhibit at the Marunouchi Building in central Tokyo, where I work. This Moai is one of 887 of the Rapu Nui statues and is on loan to mark the fifth anniversary of the building, ( http://www.marunouchi.com/festival/) which is a pretty neat place to eat, shop and work, by the way, and the 10th anniversary of whatever it is the Chilean-Japan friendship organization has been doing for the past decade. Now that I don't have such a high cost of living to deal with, I might spring for a related event, a Chile food and wine fair, at the Imperial Hotel. Cheers.
There's more about the history of Easter Island civilization and the big stone monuments on the PBS Web site:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/easter/civilization/giants.html

Aural Sex

2007-09-10T13:09:00.000+09:00

Viewer Advisory:

This Blog entry refers to sexual behavior that may be considered objectional or offensive to some people. If you are one of those people, don't read it. But the context of the potentially objectionable references is a health warning against promiscuous and unprotected sex, so you might consider the objectionable parts worth bearing for the more important stuff about health.

Ok, moving on:

I’m not a Scotch drinker, so I was not terribly upset some years ago when researchers told us there was a higher risk of certain kinds of cancer among Scotch drinkers because of the way good Scotch is cured (in charred casks). Not long after that, however, I did get upset at learning there is a higher risk of certain kinds of cancer among people who eat crispy (really brown) bacon, for the crispy part (charred, I suppose) and for the way bacon is usually cured (brine-soaked and smoked a long time).
Medical science is wonderful, because it applies other sciences to the daunting task of healing and discovery of things that make us need healing. Therefore, on one hand, as a person who has gone through cancer surgery twice, I think it is good to know what other potential cancer causes are out there.
But I never thought there would be such grave cancer risks in my favorite indoor sport untilI read a recent report that links oral sex and cancer. I am not making this up. The research on this and similar findings is widely documented, as in the particular report I read in New Scientist (Read it here: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11819)
The really scary factor is the strong linkage between oral sex and HPV (human papilloma-virus, which is a cause of cervical cancer.
In other words, before going any further, consider this a warning to both sexes: Ladies who have performed felatio on more than five partners are 250 percent more likely to contract throat cancer than those who don’t do oral sex. And men who have any of the more than 80 forms of HPV are more likely to pass the virus to their sex partners through oral sex than vaginal sex.
And men who have an HPV and who perform vaginal sex are considered extremely high risk for their partners in making them vulnerable to cervical cancer. Two HPV strains in particular, HPV 16 and HPV 18, are the most likely suspects so far, according to the most recent research.
(Learn more about HPV and the research here; http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/facts/humanpapillomavirus.htm)
But it’s all another way of saying that fellatio, however much we enjoy it, and its equally pleasurable counterpart cunnilingus, are risky forms of behavior without protection. In this case, there are two kinds of protection. Condoms and vaginal sheaths are one kind. Another kind is common sense, which I wrote about here in an earlier Blog entry.
The common-sense notion I have in mind here is that we all need to be careful about our health, including our sexual health, and we need to make sure that our sex partners are doing the same thing. This is just another application of the Golden Rule: Do unto others, or, in this case, do into others, as you would want them to do unto you. Monogamy, in the sense of being faithful to one partner, rather than promiscuous sex, is one way to apply the Rule. And with that, there is the obligation to have regular health checks, because viruses travel in many ways, and even people who are clean in their daily ablutions can pick up viruses that easily make a new home in our bodies and seek new homes in the bodies of our partners.
The risk of viral infection is especially high in the genitals (penis and vagina) and in the mouth. The mouth has often been referred to as the body’s second set of genitals. The linkage is not just poetic. The physical similarity between mouth and vagina is obvious, and some of us are as sensitive in our mouths as in the genital area, when it comes to pleasureable (or painful) experiences. Unfortunately, it also happens that the mucus membranes that keep both moist are perfect homes for viruses like the HPV group.
So, the main point is that oral sex acts are cancer risks. Guys who consider fellatio a sign that their woman loves them should understand if their woman prefers not to.
Guys should also consider the possibility that tthey may contract an HPV or other STD if heir partner might have been doing blowjobs for previous partners. Yes ladies, I'm sorry to say it, but the guy is not always the guilty partner when it comes to passing on STDs.

But for women in particular, oral sex can be bad news. The Johns Hopkins University studies found that those women who had done oral sex on one to five guys had double the risk of getting oral cancer. The women who had done six or more men increased the oral cancer risk by fivefold. And HPV contracted through oral sex, or even kissing, should be considered high-risk behavior for promiscuous partners, according to Dr. Maura Gillison, one of the researchers.
I thought about this quite a bit before writing about it. First, I though we are being warned that the only safe form of oral sex is the kind where we just sit around and talk about it. But sex is too important in our daily lives to abstain. I’ll blather on about the protection factor in a future Blog. For now, though, I’d point out there are other ways to show your love for your partner. One of those ways is to demonstrate enough respect to use condoms. They come in a variety of flavors, so to speak.

Depression

2007-09-09T08:05:00.000+09:00

The weather update from Japan is that it is a lovely late-summer day in Tokyo, with big post-typhoon clouds again, same as yesterday in the wake of Typhoon Fitow. Depending on who's counting, Japan has now either matched or is one storm short of the 2004 record of 10 to have made landfall in a season.

The storm has now weakened to what is called a tropical depression, which means it still has wind and rain you wouldn't want to be out in, but it's fading fast up in the north Pacific, very unlikely to bother people much anymore.

Before leaving Japan, though, Fitow was responsible for the deaths of at least two people and one man whose body hasn't been found, so I'd count that as three. This storm wasn't as bad as the 2004 killer of 11 people. But death and destruction from the forces of nature are part of the program here. When it's not typhooning, the earth is quaking. It's always something.

That's fairly depressing as well.

Check the Japan weather here: http://www.jma.go.jp/en/typh/

Small Change

2007-09-08T16:06:00.000+09:00

The butterfly effect is simplification of the notion that small variations in the initial condition of a nonlinear dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. So the wind created by a butterfly fluttering its wings could change the atmosphere enough to cause a tornado (or prevent one, I suppose). That's chaos. A similar and much older notion is that an infinite number of monkeys hitting the keys of an infinite number of typewriters (see how old this one is?) could eventually peck out the complete works of William Shakespeare.
That, as a long-dead aunt used to say, is a load of horse-puckeys. Proceeds from the legendary Concert for Bangla Desh, despite the best intentions, didn't do anything to help people other than the concert promoters. A recent scam involving people sending money to buy plastic bracelets that would demonstrate their concern for world hunger did not generate any money that was actually used to combat world hunger or buy food for anybody but the people who thought up the scam.
I believe in charity, and I believe in trying to help others, especially those less fortunate. At the same time, though, I am also coming off an experience that says even one person trying to have a positive effect upon another probably won't.
So if, just for example, I couldn't even help one person get on the right track without failing horribly and hurting both of us in the process, how could a stadium full of ticket-buying rock fans change the course of famine in a country so corrupt it can't even provide basic garbage-collection services, let alone have a functioning economy?
I got my head straight after being hit on it hard with a thrown dinosaur. (Yes, some other things were involved.. It's a bit complicated.)
But the point is that I now believe the best help is self-help, I now see. Apart from medical necessity, I understand that, at the end of the day, the only way we can solve a problem, overcome an addiction, break a bad habit, or get out of debt, out of a bad relationship, a bad job, a bad life in general, is to just do it. We are, as Maurice Maeterlinck put it, alone, ``absolutely alone on this chance planet; and, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us.''
Be nice to your dog.

Eric Clapton and Sheryl Crow do one of her best songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whw08RmUFNg&mode=related&search=

And Cheryl notes, A Change Would Do You Good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N9-tPwZTkc&NR=1

And Eric (and his Crossroads rehab effort) Eric Clapton, keeps trying to Change the World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whw08RmUFNg&mode=related&search=

Hot Stuff

2007-09-08T11:45:00.000+09:00

Things got better after a couple of mojitos. I found real peppermint and compiled a healthy one tonight so I could write this. Mojitos are made with rum, a lime twist, sprigs of the mint and club soda over ice. I used Cocoribe, which may not be strictly kosher in Cuba, but it tastes as good as Sonny says in Miami Vice.
Of course another reason to like that movie is for its sense of authenticity. Michael Mann does that in his films. When Colin Farrell and Gong Li (Crockett and Isabella) head for Havana in the cigarette boat for mojitos, we already know something sexy is bound to happen.

http://movies.clevver.com/video/19134/miami-vice-film-clip-crockett-and-isabella-head-to-cuba.php

And sure enough, it does, basically from the time they hit the club.. First, on the dance floor. They dance to ``Arranca, '' by Manzanita (Jose Ortega Heredia) http://www.last.fm/music/Manzanita/_/Arranca.
The dance probably qualifies as salsa. And as most anyone who has been to a Taco Bell knows, salsa is hot and spicy, just as the dance that takes the same name. So, two weeks hence, since I am not able to get to Cuba, I will at least be taking salsa lessons. And I think, with a couple of mojitos, I will do alright.
To learn more about salsa the dance, check this site: http://www.salsa-in-cuba.com/eng/
Cross-cultural footnote
Food, you may know, looms large in my life, because I love to cook, love to eat, and love to be with people who are willing to eat what I cook. So, I should tell you of a great restaurant in Healdsburg, California, up in wine country, called Manzanita. I know the Manzanita is kind of a hill-hugging scrub pine. In this case, it's also the name of a really good place to eat. You'll want some of the Sonma or Nappa region's white wine, I think, rather than mojitos, for this one. I could tell more about that later too.
Feet Notes
Another very personal footnote is about Cuba, which I am to young to remember visiting with my family on a Florida vacation before there was a falling-out between Cuba and the U.S. I'll personally be glad when that's sorted out, for many reasons. I want to have real Cuban Ropa Veja (literally Old Clothes). It's a stew of shredded beef, marinated in red wine, with peppers and onions and beans (frijole negro), as I had it. If you don't or can't or won't dance Salsa with me or have a mojito with me, please try my recipe for Ropa Veja:
Ingredients
Two pounds or more of chuck roast
2 teaspoons sea salt
Fresh-ground pepper. (I use the multi-color kind)
3 tablespoons Olive oil or Canola oil
Half-cup Sofrito, if you can find it, or a combination of ready-made salsa and fresh-chopped cilantro
one-quarter teaspoon ground cumin
two 8-ounce cans of Spanish-style tomato sauce
At least a half-dozen chopped pimento-stuffed olives
4 stalks of celery, chopped, leaves and all
3 medium carrots, trimmed and diced
1 cup black beans. (In an emergency, frozen peas will do.)
1 cup of water, plus a half-cup of red table wine
2 bay leaves
Preparation
Preheat your oven to 350 (160C), pound the beef to about a half-inch thickness, season with salt, pepper and maybe onion or garlic powder. Use a cast-iron skillet to sear the beef in the oil until brown on both sides. This takes about 5 minutes on each side. Spoon out the fat, add the Sofrito or equivalent and the salt and cumin and bring to a boil. Add oil as necessary, then stir in the tomato sauce, olives and ay leaves. Bring to a boil, cover, then bake in the oven until the meat pulls apart easily with forks. this takes about 2 hours or more. Let stand in the sauce. shred the meat and return it to the sauce, simmer a few minutes and add the celery, carrots and cook about 10 minutes, until they are tender. Add the peas, cook a few minutes more, adding wine as needed to the broth. Buen provecho!
Yet Another Personal Footnote
I bought the Miami Vice CD after watching it with my (now former) partner, who really thinks Gong Li is hot. Of course she's hot. (Of course Gong Li is hot. My former partner is too!) See True Lies, or The Emperor and the Assassin, the most expensive movie ever made in China, for examples. So I have to be careful about having too many mojitos while watching that movie, because I get all misty over her not being with me. I also wish she could be in on the Salsa lessons, because the first time she ever danced in her life was with me.
Sigh.

Anyway, if you'd like a mojito, come on over. You could stay for the stew and the movie.

Health Check

2007-09-05T21:32:00.000+09:00

I recently had a physical and learned that I still have most of my original parts and they still work. Some rust here and there, of course, and I could stand to lose several hundred pounds, but basically, I am, according to the doctor, in much better shape than most of his patients who are considerably younger.

Now, that sounds good at first blush, but then I returned to the waiting room and saw some of his patients. Omygod! Am I really 64? Are they really in their 50s?

Overall, the message I get from these annual events is that even though I have been through a lot and a lot has been through me in the past several decades, I am doing ok.

Many years ago, when I was on the cusp of deciding whether to choose music or media as a career path, I had several people point to the classic cliche ''Live hard, die young and leave a good-looking corpse.'' The fact that I chose the journalism path over the rock 'n' roll path does not dilute the fact that I lost a lot of the high end of my hearing by either playing at or being at some serious guitar sessions over the years. But at least I am still hearing something, and I revel in the fact that every day above ground puts me ahead of Jimi and Keith and Buddy and Richie and many -- way too many -- others.

The fact that I am soft in the middle (Thanks Paul Simon) when the rest of my life has been pretty hard not withstanding, I am still above ground. And that, thank you, is a nice feeling from where I sit.

I am grateful to be alive when so many of the people I came up in this with are already gone. I don't want to go all maudlin here, but I like to think I made the right choice in being a scribe, rather than a musician.
My gratitude comes at least in part from a recent study that shows American and British rock stars are at least two to three times more likely to die young, mainly because of drug and alcohol abuse. The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health published a study by researchers in Liverpool and Manchester, England, of the mortality rates among 1,064 musicians, which lends support to the long-held impression that rock stars have below-average life expectancies, especially within the first five years of becoming famous.

Drug and alcohol problems accounted for more than one in four of the early deaths, according to the study. Even when I was growing up with the shift in musical tastes, I was lucky. Because one in 10 kids in the U.K. aspire to be rock stars, and I can only imagine how much influence Paula Abdul and friends have on the aspirations of American kids.

``Fame and money protects stars from the social consequences,but it doesn't protect people from the long-term health consequences,'' Mark Bellis, a professor at Liverpool John MooresUniversity's Centre for Public health and co-author, was quoted as saying in an interview about the study findings.

I know, I know. Some of you will say you know you are too damn old when your favorite song is elevator music. I also like what's out there now, in case you think I gave it up decades ago when I had more hair and brain cells.

So, Keith and Uncle Bob and Steve Tyler and gun-abuse and transplant survivor David Crosby have managed to defy the odds, although there is reason to wonder how or why. I'm sure grateful they have, not only for their music still being out there, but for what their survival says about defying the odds and living large.
Nobody gives a shit about my music, but so have I.

But then again, I rock to a different set of standards these days, don't I?

Now, where's the kiff and the wine?

P.S. There's another metaphor about the ''Anything worth doing is worth doing to excess'' metaphor. But let's save that for a later Blog. Read more about the study and wave as you go buy: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20581183/

Floral Tribute

2007-09-02T13:12:00.000+09:00

This time of summer is a bit awkward in terms of growing or trying to grow flowers. I love flowers, and being on the sixth floor, my little balcony garden only faces east in the morning, so flowers have to try hard to get their vitamins in the early half of the day. The rest of the time, I make do with florist flowers and actually quite nice ones from the supermarket.

Fowers are a way to bring a bit of sunshine inside, and flowers help us smile when we've lost a reason to smile, as I have. Maybe that's why flowers are such a part of daily life for many people, from cradle to grave and beyond. Artists and photographers from Vincent Van Gogh to Robert Maplethorp have made flowers metaphorical images as well as subjects. So I think it is ok to have a little flower arrangement on my table, one in the bedroom and one even in the bathroom.

Not so many years ago, I gave a rose to the woman I love. She has a favorite Italian phrase that uses roses as a metaphor. I hope she still has flowers in her life now.

Bugs' Lives

2007-09-01T11:28:00.000+09:00

I hope you have seen the Disney/Pixar film A Bug's Life by now. The Web site for the film says the inspiration came from the kid's tale of the Ant and the Grasshopper, showing that industriousness is better than idleness. In the movie, Flik is one ant who stands up to grasshoppers who not only fiddle away their lives but DEMAND food from the industrious ants. Life isn't fair is another message from the movie.

Still, we can learn a lot from bugs. As I write this, we're coming off a week in which the noisy cicadas and locusts in the daytime are gradually being replaced by grasshoppers and crickets at night. I live by a river, and it is fun to watch the bats swoop around the bridge scooping up bugs at twilight. I found a spider trying to make a link between the front door and the mail slot. Seasons change, and the shift in bug life is one sign of that. People change too, and that is sort of what is bugging me now. We hope that we will grow and improve and get smarter and wiser and less prone to screwups. At the same time, we hope that the good things will stay the same.

Alas, the former hope doesn't always happen, and certainly the latter doesn't seem to happen either. Autumnilia is not just a blog, but a condition, it seems. As I get older, I hoped I would get wiser. And I hoped that things that are now wistful memories to me would have been part of the normal condition. A year ago, I thought I was a lot smarter than I feel now. And a year ago, I was longing for, working toward and embracing the whole concept of change.

So in that sense, looking at then from the perspective of now, I can say things do change. They definitely do change. Ants that can get over the idea of letting the grasshoppers run the show are better off, anyway.

The image at the top is from the Pixar Web site for the movie A Bug's Life. I hope use of the image in the context of this Blog entry is within the realm of fair use. And if it isn't, I hope the powers that be understand I had good intentions. Here's the site link, by the way: http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/abl/

Send In The Clowns

2007-08-24T00:16:00.000+09:00

At the bottom of this page, you'll find a link to Pink's song ''A Long Way To Happy.'' I may change that in the future, but for now, it's appropriate to my mood, or I should say my condition, which is, like the song says, something that's going to take a long time to get back on track. This is, pardon the pun, a depressing situation. I am usually preternaturally happy, meaning I can find something to lift me out of even the most crappy situations, or at least I could until this one.

I understand that there is some technique by which we can stimulate the left prefontal lobe of our brains (up on the left side of the forehead) to trigger release of whatever chemical is responsible for the feeling of happiness. People with brain problems in the parts of the brain that control such emotions as the nurturing instinct, feelings of elation and depression, and so on, often have to take drugs that do the same thing chemically to counter periodic depression or other conditions that make the brain sort-of cramp up.

I don't know the technique, apart from having read some research on it in science magazines. What I do know is that we could all do with whatever technique it takes to be happier. I wish I could have been able to give my partner my personal sense of happiness. Perhaps I did in some small way, but I certainly did enough else to erase whatever good I might have done beforehand. Still, there are some things we can do to help get those happiness juices flowing. Do good for others. Help people. Be nice to people. Smile at people. Speak softly. No, better yet, don't speak so much. Think first about whether what you say will cause more harm than good.

I know that people in the wealthiest (economically advanced) countries are supposed to be the happiest in general. However, I am sitting now in the capital city of the world's second-largest economy, surrounded by some of the most unhappy damned people I've ever seen. If you've followed my other Blogs, you'll know I wrote a lot about bipolarism, and the "frustrating mess" Jimi Hendrix described in Manic Depression (We're not supposed to call it that anymore). And what I know is that not everybody appreciates the effort to be happy or to make others feel happy. From where I sit, that's pretty depressing itself.

Self-Control vs. Birth Control

2007-08-23T23:35:00.000+09:00

I'm certain that I have not gotten anyone pregnant in the past three months. I will warn you now that this entry is about something some people find offensive, or at least controversial. But Blogs are supposed to be about free expression, so that's why you get a chance to express your opinion too.

This is sort-of about birth control. Many people who like sex (and that covers a lot of people) are somewhat careless about who they have sex with and when or how frequently they have sex and what kind of sex they have. These lapses are responsible for many sexually transmitted diseases, some of which are more awful than others, and, of course, a great many unwanted pregnancies.

Unfortunately, in all the years people have been having sex, there are not very many ways to avoid unwanted pregnancies except to abstain from vaginal intercourse. Homosexuals are pretty safe in this regard, and those who engage exclusively in oral sex are also fairly assured they won't get or make anyone else pregnant. The other kinds, however, are risky, and unprotected vaginal sex, especially frequent, as in three, four, five times a day unprotected vaginal sex, is higher risk. The numbers naturally increase the risk.

Condoms are not insurance against pregnancy. Guys who use condoms do their partners a big favor, however, by minimizing the risk of spreading or contracting STDs. Condoms are also a help, but no guarantee, against pregnancy. Birth-control pills are not foolproof, and there are sometimes dangerous side-effects, depending upon the kind of pill, the dosage, and whether the pill has contraindications with other medications. Women with certain medical conditions should not use birth-control pills without consulting an experienced gynecologist who knows the patient well enough to understand her hormonal balances. Spermicides are not foolproof. The so-called morning-after pill doesn't prevent pregnancy, but does seem fairly effective at inducing what amounts to a spontaneous abortion. For guys, even the pipe-cut route is not absolutely fool-proof, I am told, if the guy has a high sperm count and motility and is a member of the frequent-flyer program. Abstaining from intercourse when the lady is most likely to be pregnant (calendars and thermometers can help here.)

As a guy, I am probably gonna be criticized for pointing out that it takes two people to make a pregnancy. In fact there are only a few living things (people not included) that can procreate without a partner. So when we say ''unwanted pregnancy,'' we need to point out that both the giver and the receiver need to be on the same page when it comes to how far they are willing to go with each other. So-called casual sex takes on a whole new meaning when the condom pops, or when there isn't one in the first place. The guy who is considerate enough of his partner to use a condom should be able to feel that his partner is also smart enough to know her own body well enough to know when her biological factors are least likely to be in the condition to make babies. Alas, many guys are not that considerate, and all to few ladies are sensitive enough about their own menstrual cycles and subtle but important changes that occur between periods to know if they're likely to get pregnant. Although there are arguably too many humans chasing too few resources already, humans are still built with things that make us (men and women alike) want to have sex the most when we are most likely to have that sex result in more humans.

So we have to be more careful. Guys have to be subtly careful about their partners and ladies have to insist--yes, dammit, insist, that their partners at least wear condoms, and maybe also insist that they agree in advance to pull out before crossing the finish line, so to speak (although again, that's not foolproof either).

I say these things because I am a father. I am very proud to be a father, and I love my child for having come into my life after heart-wrenching traumas with partners who could not carry babies to term. Abortion to save the mother, or to avoid having her bear a child with deforming birth defects, is, I think, a necessary medical procedure. I don't think it is fair or moral to criticize doctors who perform abortions nor the parents who agree to abortion in those circumstances, to be punished or subject to abuse for their decisions.

As a guy, I can't completely know the physical and emotional pain that a woman goes through in having an abortion. It's not only the surgical process (D&C is the most common procedure, involving dilating the birth canal, scraping away fetal tissue from the lining of the uterus and flushing out the tissue.) This is, make no mistake, killing an unborn human. For the father of that unborn human, it is the same as being an accomplice. Being involved in taking the life of another, especially your own child, is not something anyone can do easily. And months -- years -- decades --after, recollection of having been the accomplice, even for the best of reasons, still haunts me.

So I plead with anyone and everyone contemplating sex with the opposite sex to be careful. Sex, as wonderful as it is, is just like any other investment. There are rewards and there are risks. Know your body. Know your partner. Know in your heart whether the reward is worth the consequences.

Barber Poll

2007-08-21T12:48:00.001+09:00

It was time for a haircut, so I went down to my favorite little barber shop in Sunamachi Ginza. I digress for a moment to tell you about Sunamachi Ginza. It's what city folks call Shitamachi, which literally means downtown, but more accurately is sort of a nostalgic throwback to the sleek malls and all-in-one department store/supermarkets that have all but taken over retailing in Japan. These are the little mom-and-pop stores that sell nuts and bolts, bread, silk, underwear, yakitori, sake, vegetables, fish... everything. And this one is about to go, because a new mall and high-rise housing complex is under constrcution just across the street. When it opens, I fear mom and pop are going to have to find another livelihood.
Anyway, the barbershop is a three-chair affair, and the barbers are ladies. I am too old to call them older women, but they are older than 40, in any case. Imagine the conversation was in English (It was in Japanese). It went like this:
Barber Lady: Welcome. Haven't seen you in a while.
Me: I'm sorry to be away so long.
Barber Lady: What happened to the young lady?
Me: She left me.
Barber Lady: She what? Goodness me. And you two seemed so happy together.
Me: Yes, we were, but that's over now. I'm alone.
Barber Lady: Well, don't you worry. You'll get a nicer one.
Me: I hope you're right. I think I won't be in a hurry for that.
Barber Lady: That's the best. The good ones come to you. Just remember that!

So, even the barbershop lady tells me I should just get on with it and have a life. So, I'm getting on with it. I got a good haircut and some sound advice, with the reminder that it's no good feeling sorry for yourself when things go wrong. Things often go wrong. Just keep trying. There'll be a better one. That's the consensus. I'll work with that.

Many Happy Returns

2007-08-19T17:22:00.000+09:00

I have just received (well, an hour ago, to be honest) my second birthday greeting. It was from a nice young lady who works with autistic children. She is a very unselfish and happy-minded woman, and I am proud to know her.

My first birthday greeting was automatically generated from an astrology site. Now, I am not particularly astrology-minded, but I don't dump on the idea, because it helps explain some things that are awfully darned hard to explain by other means, scientific or spiritual or otherwise.

And one thing I learned from that little birthday greeting that I didn't learn from my friend, is that there is something called the Solar Return, which means that on your birthday, the sun returns to the same relative position in the universe that it was in when you were born. Did you know that? I didn't. I'm not even sure if it's true, but it could also explain some things, because I am not in the same place I was in when I was born, and that apparently screws with the wa, astrologically speaking.

I'll take that as a way of explaining how this birthday has so far not been exactly the great whooping mound of happiness I hoped it would be so far. Of course it is only an hour and 28 minutes into the program, but I am still awaiting the fiery sunny part of my rising stars to do their stuff.

I'm a Leo, and Leos are supposed to be all sorts of good things. A little rundown I got is that they love to host parties and events. And I have invited another very nice young lady, in fact, to come over for dinner to help mark this birthday. But it also says Leos are rarely found alone, and that has not been the case for a couple of months now. I guess that is why the less-nice things about Leos are also appropriate. My horoscope says I am loving, fun and very giving to those in my personal life, and very forthright about my affection for my partner. In matters of sex, I am adventurous, fun and highly energetic. Hmmm. Well, it says mates are chosen for their willingness to allow the Leo to take the lead, and look for lovers who are uninhibited and not self-conscious. My mate must be my intellectual equal. Hmm again. I like to think so. There is more. Like my strongest compatibility is with Aires. I thought so too, but that didn't work out. So, I await the coming of my ruling planet, the Sun, and hope that the things that are supposed to apply to us Leos will shine on me today. I hope they shine on you too, whether or not it is your birthday. To help it along, here's a little music from two of my favorites, George Harrison and Paul Simon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2TGWDZTrj0

Many happy solar returns.